Joker
by Akirina
Summary: Different story. Amu has been brought up by her relatives because Easter sent her parents overseas. She meets Ikuto and sides with Easter, becoming 'enemies' with the Guardians. However, this doesn't stop the Headmaster from making her the Joker.
1. Prologue

Prologue

The first thing that filtered into her mind was the voices around her. Voices that sounded sincere and compassionate—but were actually scornful and condescending. She hated the sound. She wanted to tell them to shut up, but her limbs were too heavy and she couldn't speak at all…

"… _poor girl, parents died…"_

"—_and she has to take care—"_

"…_little sister. It's…"_

"—_would take her in…"_

"…_don't understand how she can handle this…"_

"… _going to donate…"_

"… _part of an experiment…"_

"_Poor girl…"_

Amu wished they would stop lying—drop their façade. She should have known that they would react like that… It was not too surprising, seeing as they were the 'inner circle' surrounding the Gozen, Head of Easter Corporations.

Amu's parents were part of the 'inner circle' too. Were.

They were gone now.

Only Ami was left with her. Only Ami, who loved her sister more than anything in her life.

"…_probably separate the Hinamori sisters…"_

Amu's blood froze. No! She was not going to be separated from her sister. Not ever! They couldn't force them to…

"…_leave them alone… need each other after their parent's…"_

Amu heaved a mental sigh of relief. They would not separate them. That was good. Amu drifted away as she thought of other things. Like, how she was going to deal with this situation now.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Ikuto walked along the pavement, deep in thought about the Dumpty Key. He had been told about the Humpty Lock and Dumpty Key's story and he heard that they would react to each other's presence. So when he heard the tinkle of bells that echoed through the air when he was on a grassy hill; he was surprised. He had only come into possession of the Dumpty Key for a year and this was his first encounter with the other object.

He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he did not notice when a running figure rounded the corner and slammed into him. The figure fell onto the ground and started crying loudly.

"I'm sorry! Are you all right?" Ikuto asked concernedly as he knelt down in front of the brown haired girl whose hair were bunched up in two stubs.

"Ami, I told you not to go that fast! See what you've done!" A certain pink haired girl appeared soon after and she saw him kneeling in front of the little girl, Ami.

"Eh, you're Tsukiyomi-sempai? What're you doing here?" she exclaimed, Ikuto blinked. _When did I tell her my name? Who was this person? _

"Oh, I heard about you from my relatives who live in this area." She told him after she saw the surprised expression on his face and she knelt down to attended to her sister. Ami seemed to like the pink-haired girl a lot; she hugged her sister the whole time she chatted to Ikuto.

The pink haired girl pulled Ami to her feet and dusted her sister's clothes with sisterly affection and told the younger one, "Ami, no running around next time, you hear that?"

"Yes, Onee-chan!" Ami gushed as she wriggled under her sister's hands. Then her sister pulled her hands away and grasped the younger one's hand, "Come on, let's go,"

"Hey," Ikuto called, seeing as the two girls were about to depart. They turned their gazes on him and he uneasily shifted, "I'll treat you to ice-cream… in apology for knocking your sister down." He offered.

Ami beamed up at him and turned a pleading gaze that her sister was unable to ignore and she gave in, sighing.

########

"Ikuto, I want to go play! Play with me, play with me!" Yoru begged in his ear. Ikuto ignored his Shugo Chara and paid for the ice-creams, before handing the chocolate one to Ami and he walked with them to a nearby bench.

"Why are you hanging out with these girls? Ikuto, play with me, please!" Yoru pleaded, Ikuto sighed. _Yoru could be annoying if he wanted to… _Ikuto ignored his Chara and continued talking to the two girls.

"Sorry for knocking your little sister down." Ikuto said bluntly to the girl as she licked her vanilla ice-cream.

She shook her head and said chirpily, "It's not that bad! Thank you for the ice-cream! Sorry for taking up your time!"

Ikuto was rather surprised. Most girls would take the chance to stick to him and plead for him not to go. _This girl is different, though… _Ikuto thought as he walked away. _Yes, she was very different from everyone. _

Then Ikuto remembered that he had forgotten to ask her for her name. He swerved around, but the girl and Ami were no longer in sight.

AMUAMUAMUAMU

So _that_ was Tsukiyomi Ikuto. He was in high school and she, in elementary school. Seiyo Academy consisted of three sections; Elementary, Middle and High. She would know who he was, since the students in all three sections were close with each other.

Hinamori Amu, twelve and both her parents were gone from this world. Well, Father died when Mother was still pregnant with Ami and Mother died when Ami was a few months old so they were handed over to their aunt and uncle, who were part of Easter.

Her Shugo Charas were born two years ago. They were Ran, Miki, Sue and Dia; who was the more inactive one. Her Aunt and Uncle favored Ami more, but Ami loved Amu the most as Amu did Ami. Although she didn't understand what was happening, she knew Amu was her closest family member and she would stick to her.

Ami was taught to be a proper girl as Aunt and Uncle had high expectations for the Hinamori family but they believed that Amu tarnished the family name. A Hinamori should be polite, well-dressed and educated; Amu was educated but she had not met the requirements for the other two.

Uncle and Aunt were always busy at Easter. They had business trips to everywhere and were seldom home to look after the two. So they had employed a private tutor for Ami and a housekeeper to watch over Ami too. Ami listened to them but she always showed another side when their backs were turned around.

Amu had transferred to Seiyo Academy just yesterday but it was summer break, so she did not need to go to school. Aunt and Uncle were planning to put her in a group called the Guardians. They told her about Ikuto and Utau, and everything that has happened, since they believed that Amu needed to know about it. After all, Amu was going to join Easter and help out with the business anyways.

"He's just a normal guy after all. He's not that much of a snob as Aunt and Uncle said." Amu murmured to herself after her recent encounter with Ikuto. Ran, Miki and Sue flew out of the red bag she had received from her father on her 8th birthday.

"Yeah, it seems so. Are you all right, Amu? You don't look that well." Ran chirped as she studied Amu carefully. She shook her head, "It's just a headache that I have. I'm alright."

"His Shugo Chara is called Yoru. Apparently, what Aunt and Uncle said was true, the incident between those two families…

Anyway, there are four guardians. The King is Hotori Tadase, his Chara is Kiseki. The Queen is Nadeshiko Fujisaki, and she's actually a boy—his real name is Nagehiko Fujisaki. He has two Chara's; one hasn't been born yet, the one that is born is called Temari. The Jack is called Kuukai Souma, his Chara is called Daichi. The Ace is called Yaya Yuiki, her Chara is called Pepe." Miki ranted off.

"How did you get that information in such a short time?" Amu said, astounded. Miki shrugged, choosing to remain silent and mysterious. No matter, Amu thought, she probably chatted with the other Charas when they arrived the day before yester.

"Well, anyway, the break is going to end in two weeks time, so I'll meet them sooner or later. Their Chara's wouldn't… suspect me, would they? After all, Aunt and Uncle told me to stay hidden." Amu asked them.

"No… I don't think so. As long as we don't keep near you and you put on some perfume or something to distract them…" Miki said lazily as she floated back into her egg.

**After one week, Amu's first day at school…**

"Class, we'll be having a new student. Her name is Hinamori Amu." The teacher announced after she had written Amu's name down on the board.

The class stared at the newcomer, making her feel pressurized. The poor girl said stiffly, "Well, nice to meet you all."

"Wow…" the whole class continued staring at her before they broke out into murmurs, discussing their opinions with their classmates.

"She's so cool!" They were murmuring. The teacher then pointed Amu to her seat. _Urgh, the first day of school and she was already messing up. _

"Don't be nervous, Amu-chan!" Ran whispered to her as she sat down on her seat by the window.

"Um… Amu-chan, could we be your friends?" a couple of girls approached Amu's desk, smiling tentatively. _Ah, I hadn't realized that class was over._

"Hn. Whatever, please excuse me." Amu said as she stood up and walked out of the classroom. She was headed towards the Royal Garden, where the Guardians were assembled, and she was curious about them since she had not seen anyone of them before. She peeked through the glass windows and saw Miki and Sue in there; playing with their newly made friends.

_Well, more like a happy game of finding the Embryo with that purple hair Chara being the lead. Huh, that must be Kiseki from Aunt's descriptions._

"Don't you want to go and join them?" she asked Ran, pointing to the little figures racing around in the Garden.

Ran shook her head, "Aunt and Uncle told us to stay hidden. Besides, I need to keep a watch for you!"

"No. Go play with them now. I'll come back when I'm done with school." Amu said firmly.

Ran looked torn between the two choices, but then she nodded and flew off. Amu watched them play with the other Charas for a while before she left, heading back towards her classroom

#######

Amu headed back to the Royal Garden after school to meet her three trouble-makers. She knew that they were still in the Royal Garden. Well, unless they went off somewhere else while playing the 'hunting for Embryo' game.

Amu stopped by a patch of fresh flowers, taking in their freshening scent. She suddenly remembered the night she gained Ran, Miki and Sue. That night, she had wished for courage to change… Well, she hadn't completely changed, but she _had _improved since then.

_Tinkle…_

Amu started, _what was that?_ _The sound of a bell…? There it is again…_

Without thinking about it, Amu started towards the source of the sound. She slipped into the Royal Garden and crept down the stairs, hoping that no one was around. She entered a small room filled with books. It was a lovely room, pretty much like a library.

Amu headed towards where the ringing was coming from—a long scroll with a picture of a dragon on it. She flipped it aside and an egg in a hollow behind the scroll; it was a pretty white egg that had small wings sprouting from it. Fascinated, Amu took the big egg from its hiding place.

"Isn't it cute?" she murmured softly as she turned it over in her hands. _Hey, wait a moment. I shouldn't be thinking about this. I just broke into the Royal Garden and trespassed! What should I do! Amu you stupid idiot! _Amu mentally scolded herself.

She glanced at the staircase carefully; it did not seem like anyone was going to come down soon. _Well, I better put this back anyway._

She walked back to the hollow quickly, but in her haste, she tripped over a chair that was lying nearby and tumbled to the ground. The egg fell from her hands and struck the ground, cracking into two halves.

"Oh no, what have I done!" Amu cried as she scrambled towards it. Only to find that there was something glittering amongst the two shattered halves.

It was the Humpty Lock! It was shining with a white brilliance as Amu reached out and took it from the ground. She marveled at the Lock in her hands, the infamous Humpty Lock that had been involved in the Tsukiyomi and Hotori family history. Then, Amu heard voices coming from behind her. S_omeone's here!_

She looked around nervously, searching for a way of escape. There was another stairway nearby and she quickly darted up it.

Then she heard someone cry out, "Someone has been in here! Look, the egg—!"

"The footprints are fresh; they're heading toward the planetarium!"

It was a long flight of stairs and it ended up in a planetarium which ceiling was that of a night sky currently.

She could see the stars stretching out, twinkling at her in a merry way. This brought back memories, Father had always liked astronomy. He taught her how to recognize the constellations all these reminded her of the good old times they used to have.

There was a muted ring of bells and Amu looked down at her hand. Her eyes almost bulged out. _The Humpty Lock! What… Didn't I just drop it in the room back there? Why is it still in my hand?_

_Damn. I just stole the Humpty Lock? Well, never mind, I'd better run for my life! _With that, Amu dashed out of the planetarium, heading towards her classroom. She didn't bother about the extra activities; they wouldn't matter much, anyway. She made a beeline for the main gate of the school after saying goodbye to her classmates and fibbed that she wasn't feeling so well.

Amu strolled around the streets, wandering aimlessly. It was only her third week here and she already had done something despicable.

She couldn't let Aunt and Uncle know that she had stolen the Humpty Lock. They would want to take it and give it to Gozen, the boss of Easter. Although Amu had never met him, she knew that he was a bad person.

That was why she wanted to support the Guardians, and for Ami too. She was young and should not be involved in this type of cases. The first word Ami had said was not Papa or Mama, but Nee-chan. She still remembered that day…

_For her sake, I would do anything. Because she is family; the only real family member that I ever had apart from Mother or Father._

Amu made up her mind; _I'm going to have to help Easter._


	3. Chapter 2

Akirina: I'm sorry for the 2 year hiatus! Well, with some of my other fanfics out of the way, I can focus more on Joker now. :) Enjoy!

"_Amu, from today onwards, you shall help Utau-chan out with her preparations. You will organize her schedule, got that?"_

"_Yes,"_

"_Good. Utau-chan, meet our newest member of Easter, Hinamori Amu."_

"… _Nice to meet you."_

"_Nice to meet you too."_

#######

The whole school was buzzing the next day. It seems that the Guardians decided not to cover up the theft and they were pointing fingers at Ikuto for stealing the Humpty Lock.

Amu felt ashamed and angry when she heard this. She had stolen the Humpty Lock; they were misjudging someone else because he seemed likely and also they shouldn't drag Ikuto into this!

_Wait, what is this? I feel protective of him? Urgh, liking anyone would only add on to my burden of having to protect someone._ Actually, it was not true, but she had to prevent herself from dragging someone into this.

"Hey, did you know? Tadase, the Prince has commenced 'war' with Tsukiyomi-sempai! He's going to fight him in the afternoon!" Amu heard the girls whispering amongst each other. Uh oh… the situation was already turning from bad to worse.

"Amu-chan, what are you going to do? You know we don't really approve of you joining Easter, but since you insisted, we had no choice. I know you mean good, but why don't you tell them the truth and return them the Humpty Lock?" Miki said, floating near Amu as Ran and Sue slumbered in the bag.

"I'm joining Easter, that's what I've decided. You haven't seen how powerful they are, Miki. All of you weren't born at that time… you don't know what they did to my mother and father," Amu murmured as she bent over her work.

Miki was silent for a while before she shrugged, "Fine, I don't know what they did to you nor do I know what you are planning. But you know that we will support you until the end… You had better tell us what happened."

Amu made a small nod before she picked her calculator up and pressed numbers into it. Miki disappeared into her egg and Amu let out a silent sigh. Miki's persistence on knowing her past relationship with Easter made Amu remember the nightmares she had. They still hadn't diminished even after all these years.

_Even after all these years…_

Amu stopped writing and closed her eyes, trying to control the emotions that were struggling to break free. She was so absorbed in her memories that her halt in her work attracted the teacher's attention.

"Hinamori-san, is there something wrong?" The teacher walked to Amu's desk, looking at the girl in concern. Her student had been looking pale these few days and she had not been concentrating on her lessons.

Amu looked up, breaking out of her memories, "Huh… Oh, Sensei, I'm fine." She replied and returned to her work. The teacher looked at her for a little longer before turning away.

**Break time**

"Hey, I heard that Hinamori-san joined Easter and she's working as Utau-chan's assistant now!" the girls talked amongst each other as Amu walked past them. "Wow, Hoshina Utau? I can't believe it! But it is worth it to have such a cool person like Hinamori to be her assistant!"

News of Amu's job had flown over the whole Academy and Amu sighed when she heard them talking about her. She seated herself down on one of the benches by the pathway and brought out a sandwich from her bag. She bit into it as she took out a laptop and flipped it open.

Utau's manager, Yukari Sanjo, wanted Amu to finish planning the schedule by today and Amu just needed to do the touch-ups. She keyed in a few details and rechecked the whole thing before opening her mailbox and sending it to Yukari.

Amu sighed and leaned back in her seat; she had sacrificed a few nights' sleep to complete the whole thing and hoped it would be alright. She closed the laptop's lid and finished off her food as she placed the laptop back into her bag. She stood up and prepared to return to the classroom just as the bell rang.

_Oh no, I'm going to be late!_

Amu jumped up and raced back into the building, hurtling up the staircases and bumping into someone. "I'm sorry!" she gasped and continued to dash up the stairs and arrived at the classroom just as the teacher approached.

"You're on time, Hinamori-san," the teacher observed as Amu bowed and entered the classroom, heading to her desk immediately. Amu seated herself down at her desk and pulled her textbooks out, preparing for her lesson.

"Kuukai, did you notice that girl who bumped into you at the staircase … She had a smell of something…" Yaya watched the girl run up the stairs. Kuukai followed her object of interest and nodded.

"I caught a whiff of it, but she mixed perfume with her scent, so I couldn't be sure." Kuukai said and he turned around, walking down the stairs.

Yaya caught up with him, "So what does Tadase want with us?" she piped, looking at Kuukai curiously.

Kuukai replied, "We can't find the Humpty Lock. Did you hear about the rumors? It's true, Tadase is going to fight with him today afternoon." Yaya looked surprised.

"What, it's gone? Oh no, that's bad… What did Tsukasa-san say?" she asked as they walked towards the Royal Garden. "He didn't say anything… But he did tell Tadase not to jump to conclusions. He says that the person is here." Kuukai told Yaya as they opened the door.

Tadase and Nadeshiko turned around, looking at the two newcomers, "Kuukai, Yaya, you're here." Tadase said, "Good, now we can go and get the Humpty Lock from that thieving cat." They saw a flame of hatred burn in Tadase's eyes.

"Tadase…" Kuukai murmured, feeling uneasy about the situation. "Fine, let's go." He sighed, glancing at his fellow members.

Amu glanced out of the window; she saw the four figures making their way to the high school in the distance. Capes swayed about their shoulders as she watched them walk out of the Elementary School.

_Off to their fight, is it… _Amu thought as she stood up. _Well, Yukari-san did tell me to watch them and Ikuto and make sure their movements don't affect our work._

"Sensei, I'm off," Amu said as she grabbed her bag and left the classroom, the teacher gave a slight nod before she continued teaching the class. Amu closed the door behind her and started to head to the staircase before she stopped.

_The staircase would take too long and by the time I reach downstairs, they would be out of sight._

Amu changed direction and headed to one of the deserted corridors. She glanced around before she opened the red bag she hung on her waist. "Ran, Character Change," Amu whispered and the pink egg opened as Ran zoomed out.

"Character Change," Ran cried as the crosses clip in Amu's hair disappeared and were replaced with pink heart clips. "Hop, step, jump!" Amu leapt into the air and Ran guided her down to the ground safely.

"Come on, let's catch up with them!" Amu said softly to Ran as she continued to follow the Guardians. She caught up with them as they crossed the street. Amu kept out of sight as she tailed them and followed them to an amusement park.

"This amusement park will be torn down at the end of this year, which will be where the cat and I will be meeting." Tadase said to the other three Guardians. _An amusement park; is it…_

Amu ducked into a clump of bushes and watched as the Guardians walked into the amusement park. She dug a hand into her bag and pulled a video camera out. This would be the perfect chance to observe their fighting.

"What are you doing here?"

Amu turned around immediately, it was Ikuto and his Shugo Chara, Yoru. She relaxed, "It's you," she sighed, putting a hand to her chest. "I had the fright of my life when you appeared like that." She murmured to herself.

"What are you doing here?" Ikuto repeated, staring at her, "Aren't you supposed to be in school at this time?" Amu froze, and then she lied, "Our teacher was sick and unable to come to school, so we were let off early."

"Is that so?" Ikuto continued to stare at her with sapphire eyes, "Then why are you here?"

"I'm here to do a project. Is there anything wrong with that?" Amu glanced at Ikuto, "I was sent here by Easter to video tape your fighting scene with the Guardians."

Ikuto's expression changed to one of wariness, "They sent you here…" he sounded doubtful then he shrugged, "Whatever, I can't be bothered."

He walked away from her and called, "Hello, little king,"

The fight was beginning.

Amu started taping the scene and watched as Tadase's accusations became yells, the rest of the Guardians tried to calm their King down. They started to Character Change when Ikuto insulted them even more.

Ikuto then jumped away from the amusement park and Amu stopped the taping. She ran after them but soon lost track of them. "Oh no, I lost sight of them!" Amu sighed in frustration as she stopped near a construction site that was closed for the weekends.

"Stop there, you thieving cat! Drop those eggs!" someone shouted and there was a golden and blue explosion. _Tadase and Ikuto!_

Amu ran towards the sound of the commotion. The scene that greeted her was not what she expected; Tadase on the ground with his crown and Ikuto with cat ears climbing a crane, there was a blue egg in his hand. The rest of the Guardians were with Tadase, Nadeshiko looked alarmed as her hand dropped back to her side.

"That's Nagehiko's egg!" Ran whispered, "Amu-chan, do you still remember what Tsukasa told you before?"

Amu nodded; _The Heart's egg. _"We must save Nadeshiko's egg." Miki whispered as Amu reached into the red bag and brought out the Humpty Lock. She looked at the Lock in her hand before bringing it to her chest, "Please, give me courage," she whispered, remembering the wish she had made years ago.

The Lock chimed softly and Amu replaced it in the bag again. "Ran," Amu called, "Get ready!" Amu ran towards the construction building where Ikuto was heading to. He had already gotten to the top of the crane and leapt onto the metal plate.

"I've got the egg, now. Let's see if it's the Embryo!" He called down to the Guardians. Their faces of outrage amused him before he saw Amu running to the building. _It's that girl… What is she doing here?_

"Hop, step, jump!"Amu pushed herself off the ground and landed on the top of the construction with a light thump. Ikuto and the Guardians were looking at her in utter amazement, "What are you doing?" Ikuto asked.

"Give them back the egg! It's not yours, Tsukiyomi." Amu griped as she glared at him; taking another's egg was wrong. An egg represented the dreams of the person and if destroyed, they would lose all hope.

Ikuto smirked, "I would like to see how you will get this." He teased as he leapt towards Amu and stalked towards the girl. He saw that she hesitated, which he used to his advantage. "You have a Shugo Chara too." He said, looking at the pink color one floating near her head.

Amu froze, her Character Change had worn off once she reached the top. She was now powerless. There was a soft chime and Ikuto looked surprised, "You have the Humpty Lock? You were the one who stole it."

Amu kept silent and her face flushed as he came nearer to her. He slid his hands into the small waist bag she had and whisked out the Lock. "What's this? There are some more eggs…" Ikuto mused as his fingertips brushed over an oval figure.

He reached back in but drew back after he felt something bite his finger. "It's already hatched… No use." He stepped back, "Well, I'll be taking this." He told Amu and her eyes widened as she watched him throw the Lock to his Chara.

"Come on, Yoru. Let's give them the good news." Ikuto started to leave.

"Give me back my egg!" Amu heard Nadeshiko cry. "Amu-chan, the egg," Amu heard Ran cry urgently.

_The egg…_

Ikuto had taken two steps from her.

_The egg…_

Ikuto was approaching the small stump of metal that would give him leverage to escape. He mustn't…! That was Nadeshiko's egg!

_Nadeshiko's egg…!_

"Egg…" Amu said weakly, then she put a foot forward, testing her balance. "Egg… Give Nadeshiko's egg back!" Amu started at a full out run towards Ikuto. He turned around in surprise as she reached for the blue egg in his hand.

Her fingertips were about to reach the egg when Ikuto let it slip from his hand. The egg tumbled over the side and Amu changed her track with a cry, "Tamago!"

She caught the egg in her hands and fell from the metal plate, the ground rushing up to meet her. "Amu-chan!" Ran raced after Amu as she fell to the ground. "Amu-chan, do a Character Transformation!"

Amu was filled with fear, _Character Transformation?_ She had only done it four times; each time was when one of her Shugo Charas came out of their eggs; on that exact day… But she didn't know how to do it!

"I don't know how to do it!" Amu cried, afraid and she clutched the egg nearer to her chest. "Believe in yourself, believe and you can do it!" Ran cried, the ground was rushing even nearer now.

Amu closed her eyes tightly, _Believe… Believe and you can do it! Courage… Give me courage! _"Courage… Give me courage!" Amu cried loudly. There was a bright flash of pink and the Humpty Lock burnt Yoru's paws. The startled Chara released the Lock and gravity pulled it down.

The muffled chime rang out again as Amu opened her eyes in surprise and her surroundings changed from reality into a world of power; in the center was the Humpty Lock. Amu reached out for it and felt tremendous power wrap her body.

It flowed through her and her body changed direction; feet facing the ground as she stopped her fall by landing on her feet, sliding against the ground and pushing off again into the air.

Amu felt the power in her settle a little and realized that she was wearing a cheerleader's outfit. "What… This is…Character Transformation?" Amu said in amazement as her body spun around, she remembered this outfit but she hadn't felt this refreshed.

_Character Transformation… Do you remember, Amu-chan? A Character Transformation uses over 120% of the Chara's power._ Ran's voice sounded.

"I remember… But it's… I feel as light as a feather!" Amu laughed as a breeze blew from the ground and Amu flew even higher. She was suspended in the air and flipped around, enjoying her freedom in the air. It was like she was flying! Amu enjoyed herself tremendously.

The burst of pink light had been blinding. But when the light cleared, the Guardians realized that the girl had pushed off the ground and was in the air again.

"Character Transformation…?" Tadase said with amazement. She was in a cheerleader outfit and she was flying in the air, body as light as a feather.

The Guardians were surprised. "Tadase, look!" Nadeshiko pointed to the Lock in the girl's outfit, it glowed pink with power and Tadase was surprised. The Lock had reacted to the girl?

They heard Ikuto say, "Impossible…" In fact, that was what the Guardians were thinking too. _Impossible._

"We'd better get down," Amu said reluctantly as she floated down to the ground. The outfit disappeared after she landed safely and Ran popped out. "That was fun and so good!" Ran squealed as she twirled in the air.

Amu smiled at her Chara and she looked at her hands that were cupping the blue egg. She looked up and saw the Guardians approaching her.

"This is your twin brother's egg, right?" Amu handed the egg to Nadeshiko/Nagehiko. The girl, more like boy, smiled at Amu uneasily and took the egg back with a 'Thank you'.

"Who are you and why do you have the Humpty Lock?" Tadase demanded, looking at Amu with ruby eyes. Amu shrugged, "I think I'll keep this for a little while more, 'k?" Then she turned around and ran off, "See you in school!" She departed with a wave and headed back home.

**Next day at school**

"Tadase, Nadeshiko, have you found out who that girl is?" Yaya asked, leaning in her chair.

"Yes, but the Headmaster ordered us not to approach her." Nadeshiko said as she poured black tea into the cups.

"He said, 'She is meant to have that Humpty Lock,'" Tadase relayed as he gathered the documents in his hands, "Come on, it's time for school."

"Oh yes, Tadase, we forgot to inform them of the new place…" Nadeshiko stopped Tadase.

"Ah, yes, Hinamori Amu shall take the position of the Joker," Tadase announced to the rest of them, "This is the will of the Headmaster and I have agreed with him."


	4. Chapter 3

Akirina: Firstly, I thank everyone out there for reading my story :)

Chapter 3

**Today, we shall announce the Guardians. First is the King's Chair, Hotori Tadase.**

_A blonde haired boy steps forward and bows._

**Next is the Queen's Chair, Fujisaki Nadeshiko.**

_A dark haired girl steps forward and curtseys._

**The Jack's Chair, Souma Kuukai.**

_A brunette haired boy steps forward and waves to the crowd._

**The Ace's Chair, Yuiki Yaya.**

_A light brown haired girl steps forward and waves enthusiastically with a big smile._

The announcer stops for a while as the whole school erupts in claps, yells and squeals.

**This year, we have a new member. This person will take the Joker's Chair.**

The students pause in their celebrating and start murmuring among each other.

"Who can it be?"

"It's surely me! The Great Saaya Yamabuki! I've finally captured Hotori-kun and Souma-sempai's hearts!" Saaya laughed, holding a hand to her mouth. Amu looked at Saaya and rolled her eyes. _Who would fall for such a person?_

"Yes, Saaya-sama!" the chorus of voices shocked Amu. She turned around to find that the boys and girls had gathered behind Saaya and were staring at the said with sparkling eyes. Amu sighed, what a bunch of idiots.

**This person is…**

The announcer paused, letting the tension build up.

**This person is Hinamori Amu!**

Amu's jaw dropped.

The four Guardians eyes locked on her and Amu glared at them. _I didn't say that I wanted to be a Guardian! _

Amu turned her face away and closed her eyes. This was outrageous! In any case, she was not getting up on the stage.

"Amu-san, you're the next Guardian! Get up on there!" her classmate nudged Amu.

"No, I'm not getting up on there!" Amu hissed to her friend. Amu was frightened although she wanted to go on stage. "Go, Amu-chan!" she heard Ran cheer loudly.

Amu frowned, "Stop it, Ran. I don't want to be any Guardian." She hissed to the Chara softly.

"Amu-chan, you know you want to be on stage, just get going!" Miki called from the bag.

"Besides, it won't be polite if you don't go up on stage!" Sue joined in.

She sighed and stood up, heading to the stage. Amu ignored the triumphant smiles of the Guardians and sat down in the Joker's chair.

"Welcome to the Guardians, Amu-chi!" Yaya told her happily as Nadeshiko clasped the Guardian's cape around her shoulders.

Amu sent her an irritated look and shrugged her shoulders, earning more squeals from the audience who _worshipped _Amu. "I didn't want to be a part of the Guardians." she huffed.

"Well, if you join, you get to have many special priveleges." Nadeshiko offered.

Amu's attention perked up at this. "Such as?" she asked eagerly.

"Like being able to use the home economics room whenever you want," Nadeshiko replied, smiling. Amu sat up straight, interested.

It did sound interesting... Although she didn't want to get involved with the Guardians... She didn't want to get too close to them. If there came a day when the Gozen ordered her to go agains the Guardians, she probably would be too involved with them to do a clean job...

"And we'll get some tokens of appreciation from the Headmaster every now and then..." Tadase added. "Free shopping vouchers, sometimes."

Amu was definitely joining. But...

"I'm working for Easter. She stated bluntly, the words slipping out before she could stop herself. Then she stared at the Guardians in shock. She hadn't meant to say that!

Amu turned and fled from the stage.

**AMUAMUAMUAMU**

_Stupid, stupid Amu. Why did I have to do that? _Amu cried inwardly, _but then, this is for the sake of Ami. Remember, if you don't listen to Easter, you will be wiped out._

Amu sighed as she felt sadness twist and squirm within her chest. Her three Charas flew out of their bag, "Come, Amu-chan, let's go for a walk in the woods!" Ran cried.

"But my studies—"Amu began when Miki cut her off, "Studies aren't important now, you can skip them once in a while, right?"

"Besides, you need a breath of fresh air now!" Sue chirped and the three of them managed to make Amu agree albeit a little reluctantly.

Amu followed the three twirling Charas outside. "Wait up, Ran, Miki, Sue! Where are you going?" Amu laughed as Ran bumped into a tree accidentally.

"Come on, Amu-chan!" Miki cried, pulling on a strand of pink hair. Amu laughed and chased after the running Charas.

"Amu-chan, come over here… See what this is!" Sue cried and Amu stumbled onto a small pathway. "What…" Amu said, surprised; why would there be a pathway out here? Her Charas were in front of a building that had a domed roof.

"Come on!" Miki cried with excitement and Amu watched in amusement as the Charas tried to push the door of the building open. Amu came up and pushed the door open to be greeted with a magnificent view of the sky. She stepped in and closed the door, admiring the view and gasping with pleasure. Her Charas were astounded by their find as well and Amu made her way to one of the seats as she admired the sky.

Her Charas sat down with her and enjoyed the changes of the sky as the stars and moon twinkled at them.

"It is peaceful, isn't it?" someone said from behind Amu and she jumped up in surprise. A man with similar features to Tadase smiled down at her and she frowned a little. "Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Tsukasa, the Headmaster of this school." He replied her and walked down the aisle towards Amu. Her foot moved at inch back and Tsukasa smiled at this.

"You're the one who made me the Joker? Why did you do so?" Amu asked in a demanding tone. She didn't understand why this man would want to make her a Guardian.

"Don't you want to be one, a Guardian, I meant. You would love to be one, am I right?" Tsukasa asked as he sat down on a chair.

Amu bit her lip. She should not tell this man the truth… but what harm could he do?

"I… I would like to be one, that is true," she admitted finally, "But the problem is that I'm in Easter, so I can't be in the Guardians, don't you know that? Easter and the Guardians are enemies, aren't they?"

Tsukasa looked at Amu for a while before he nodded, "Yes, we are enemies. However, Easter has nothing to do with your school life, does it?"

Amu started to retort, but she stopped, still looking at Tsukasa warily. She couldn't reveal too much to him… it would be too risky. She didn't want to slip up, did she?"

"And I believe that whatever decision I make has nothing to do with you. After all, you don't control me." Amu retorted sharply. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be leaving."

Tsukasa watched the back of the retreating girl. When Amu started to close the door of the planetarium behind her, Tsukasa called after her.

"Then does the walker choose the path or the path the walker?"

**EASTEREASTEREASTEREASTER**

"Hinamori, I heard that you've been made Joker of the Guardians." The altered voiced spoke from behind the curtains.

Amu bowed her head respectfully. "Yes, sir."

"Excellent."

Amu looked up at the Gozen's comment, her mind working quickly, trying to figure out what the Gozen meant by that.

"You will remain with the Guardians."

Amu ventured cautiously, "Am I to spy on them, sir?"

"Yes. And I want a report sent to me every day. You know how to contact me, so I wouldn't need to brief you about it. And if there is anything interesting, I want a full report." The Gozen instructed.

"Interesting, sir?" Amu asked.

"Stuff." He replied vaguely. "For instance, character transformations and the such." And then he dismissed her.

"Yes, sir." Amu bowed and made her way out of the room. She strode through the halls of the Easter Corporation. Her uniform drawing many looks from the workers. Many of them didn't recognize her. But she recognized them. The hateful people who had 'sympathized' for her when her parents disappeared two years ago.

The only reason why they didn't recognize her was probably because she had not been in Japan for the past two years, but had been in the U.K. with her Aunt and Uncle. So it was natural that they would not recognize her.

Amu sighed to herself as she went through the events that had occurred thus far. Her life had certainly took a turn for the worse—or was it better? Her mind lingered on the parting sentence of her meeting with Tsukasa.

"_Does the walker choose the path or the path the walker?"_

***AMUAMUAMUAMU

"Hey, Hinamori," the call caught Amu's attention as she was about to enter the elevator. She turned. And smiled when she saw who it was.

"Yukari. It's been a long time since we met." She said, studying the red-haired manager who was dressed in a brown suit. "I have to leave now, so if there's anything…"

"This'll only take a minute." Yukari thrust the file she was holding into Amu's hands. "We've been friends for some time, so I thought this might help in your search… for your treasured ones."

Amu stared at her for a moment before turning her gaze to the file in her hands. "They're still alive?"

"There were… certain signs, you might say. I was keeping tabs on them." Yukari replied, folding her arms. "And in exchange for that, you'll have to train to become my replacement in being Utau's manager."

Yukari saw the look of protest on Amu's face and hurried to persuade Amu. "Look, I'm getting engaged soon and you know that I wouldn't be coming back to the Easter any time soon, Amu." She told Amu in a low voice, glancing around to make sure that no one was listening in on their conversation. "I need Utau in safe hands and I know that you can do the job. Besides, you won't want Utau in another psycho's hands, would you?"

Amu frowned and nodded her head slowly. "But…" she hesitated.

"I know that you don't want to do this, Amu." Yukari empathized. "After all, this is the corporation that caused your parents to… disappear. But Utau is your best friend and I wouldn't trust her in anyone else's hands."

Amu kept silent for a few moments, her brow still furrowed and she looked as if she were deep in thought. After a long intense moment, Yukari was getting slightly anxious and worried that Amu would refuse. But Amu finally sighed and murmured, "Fine. I'll take over the position when you leave."

"Great!" Yukari beamed. "I'll send you the details later."

"By the way, when are you going to be engaged?" Amu asked Yukari.

"Hm? Well, as soon as Nikaidou asks me The Question." Yukari replied with a dreamy smile on her face. "Which, I expect, should be very soon."

"If you say so," Amu muttered to herself. Somehow, Nikaidou seemed like those kind of person who would second-guess themselves for the decisions they were about to make. Then she turned back towards the elevator. "Then if you'd excuse me, I'm going back now."

She received no reply from Yukari, who was happily fantasizing about how Nikaidou would propose to her.

***AMUAMUAMUAMU

The moment Amu stepped out of the Easter Corporations and got to a respectable distance away from the passers-by, she pulled out her hand phone and dialed Yukari's boyfriend.

"Nikaidou? I heard from Yukari that you're going to propose to her." Amu waited for a moment and was rewarded with spluttering from the man on the other side. "I just wanted to tell you—" Nikaidou broke off for a moment, "—that if you break Yukari's heart, I'll kill you."

There was a moment of silence and Amu could actually _feel _the terror from the other man. She grinned to herself. This was fun. When the silence started to stretch out, Amu decided that it was enough.

"Nikaidou, I have something I want you to help me look in on." Amu started.

"Got it," Nikaidou replied, "Your parents, right?"

"How—Oh. Yukari set you on it, didn't she?" Amu figured it out. "Well, then, just keep up the work and send everything that you find to me. Don't tell Yukari about this, alright?"

"Can do." Nikaidou answered immediately, then he faltered. "In return for… uh…"

Amu tapped her foot impatiently and glanced at her watch. She needed to get to Ami's school to pick her younger sister up. "Hurry up, Nikaidou. I've got to run."

"Will you… uh… help me… helpmeinhowtoproposetoYukari?"

"What?"

Nikaidou stuttered. "Will you help me in how to propose to Yukari?" he stumbled over his words.

Amu grinned. "I'll send you an email later." She promised and hung up on Nikaidou's thanks. She looked at her watch once more and broke into a light jog.

She'd figure out how to please Yukari with Nikaidou's proposal, but now, she had something more important to do. Like picking up her little sister from school.


	5. Chapter 4

Akirina: Thanks for all the support out there!

Chapter 4

"So it's decided that we're going to bring the whole orphanage out for a trip at the amusement park?" Yaya asked as she swung her legs carelessly as she bit into one of Nadeshiko's homemade biscuits.

"Yes," Tadase replied. "The Headmaster was kind enough to provide some funds for us."

Yaya pouted. "Yaya doesn't want other babies around. Yaya wants to be the only baby." She whined to Nadeshiko, who had stood up to refill the cups of the other Guardians. "Can't we just let them fuss over Yaya?"

"That's a very strange idea, Yaya," Nadeshiko returned, "And I think these children will need more attention than you. After all, they've lost their parents and they don't have anyone to shower them with attention and love."

Yaya sighed and slumped on the table. "I know." She said.

"Anyway… Where's Hinamori? I thought she'd be here." Yaya asked from her position on the table.

"Kuukai went to find her. He also mentioned something about testing her physical stamina…" Nadeshiko replied and placed a finger on her chin, thinking. "What does he mean by testing physical stamina?"

Tadase was the only one who had turned pale in the room. "Physical stamina? Oh no…"

"What's wrong, Tadase?" Yaya perked up, interested.

"Do you still remember the time when Kuukai decided to give me some physical training?" Tadase's face had gone slightly green.

"Oh." Nadeshiko and Yaya said.

"I hope she survives." Tadase murmured as he took a sip from his cup. "And I hope Kuukai comes back soon, or we'll have to start without him. We still need to settle which amusement park to go to and what we're going to have for lunch…"

"I know one amusement park we could go to," Yaya volunteered. "In fact, it's not very far away, so that'll probably be good if we only have a budget of ten thousand from the Headmaster."

"We can raise extra funds to buy presents for the children." Nadeshiko suggested. "And the ten thousand budget can be used for the tickets, transport and food, I suppose."

"There are twenty children in the orphanage, so we can probably divide it between the five of us. Four children per Guardian." Tadase suggested. "And since there are an equal number of girls and boys, we could arrange two boys and two girls to be managed by a Guardian."

A loud thump distracted the others from their discussion and they looked up to see a flurry of pink— Hinamori Amu, their Joker land by the table.

"Amu-san…?" Nadeshiko started.

Amu glanced at them and stood up, brushing some dirt from her red skirt. "Do you usually get some kind of nut case to be your Jack? He's crazy."

"Kuukai? Oh, don't mind him. He's usually like that and he always gives a physical examination to other Guardians." Tadase smiled at her kindly. Amu blinked, caught off-guard by his friendly demeanor. Wasn't he mad at her the other day…?

"It's just a misunderstanding, Amu-chan." Nadeshiko soothed her, as if she could read Amu's mind. "We didn't mean to give you such a bad impression that day, but we were shocked and confused."

Amu looked at her and shrugged. "Whatever. It probably doesn't matter much." She said nonchalantly. "By the way," she added as she heard someone call her name. "Could you get that guy off me? It's getting pretty annoying and Ran is definitely faster and stronger than Daichi."

"Eh~" Yaya pounced onto Amu. "Show us your Shugo Charas, Amu-chi!"

"What's all this noise?" A bunch of tiny figures floated out of the bushes. The three Guardians took in the sight of their Shugo Charas. All of them looked exhausted and tired and Pepe was yawning.

"Kiseki, did you take them along on one of your adventures again?" Tadase asked his Shugo Chara, who was dressed as a king. Kiseki nodded proudly. "We went on a search to find our kingdom." He announced grandly. Then he caught sight of Amu.

"Who's this new peasant?" He asked snobbishly, pointing at Amu. "Are her Charas going to become my servants again?"

Amu glared at Tadase and Tadase laughed nervously. "Well, Kiseki, you shouldn't be rude to the new Guardian…"

"She's the master of Ran, Miki, Sue and Dia?" the other Charas perked up and gathered around Amu. "Where are they?"

Amu sighed at the expectant faces of the Charas. She reached to the bag strapped to her waist and opened the cover. Four eggs with a gothic pattern lay in her bag, one was red, the other blue, the third green and the last a golden yellow.

"Amu?" The green egg popped open and Sue emerged, yawning and rubbing her eyes. "What's—Oh!"

The other eggs opened and three other Charas peeked out. They quickly emerged when they saw the other Charas crowding around Sue and they flew out to mingle with the other Charas. Amu and the other Guardians watched them chatter to the others before Amu called them to her. She turned to the rest of the Guardians and started to introduce her Charas.

"This is Ran." The pink Chara waved at them cheerfully at them. She was wearing a pink cheerleader outfit and was holding pink pom-poms. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail with a heart-shaped clip and she had a cap on.

"This is Miki." The blue Chara blinked at the Guardians before she returned to her drawing, quickly sketching out the scene before her. She was dressed like an artist, a simple shirt and shorts on her and a artist's cap with a spade-shaped clip on her head, concealing her blue hair. She had a small bag that was stuffed with art material.

"This is Sue." The green Chara greeted them cheerfully. Unlike the two other Charas, she had a green dress and a white apron. She looked much more like a girl than the other two. A simple white bandanna with a clover-shaped clip tied back most of her blonde locks and she held an egg beater in her hands.

"This is Dia." The last Chara was probably the most outstanding Chara amongst the four of them. She smiled at the Guardians and greeted them happily. She wore a yellow top and skirt and her orange hair were tied up in two long ponytails. She had a hair-band with a diamond-shaped clip on her head and she held a microphone.

"Ah! I found you!" the loud shout disturbed the introductions and the four Guardians looked towards the door of the greenhouse as Kuukai came rushing in. He was obviously exhausted and tired, having seemingly ran the whole way to the greenhouse. He collapsed into one of the chairs at the table, trying to regain his breath as the three other Guardians looked at him in surprise.

"Why did you run off without me? I was nearly caught by the vice-principal, you know." Kuukai panted out, giving Amu a baleful look.

Amu smiled sweetly. "I thought you said you were the fastest at getting away from trouble?" She asked, her voice filled with sarcasm. "In any case, you got out, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Kuukai rolled his green eyes. "You could have waited, though."

"And let you continue with the torture? No way." Amu replied, dropping into the chair beside Kuukai. Her eyes landed on the files the other three Guardians had been going through before they arrived and she picked one up.

"Hardsfield Orphanage?" She read out loud, her eyes scanning through the documents and information. "We're going to organize an outing for the orphanage?"

"Yes," Nadeshiko returned to the table. "We've decided to take them to an amusement park. Yaya says she knows of one nearby…" She quickly updated the two members of what had been going on.

Kuukai nodded, "I know of the place that Yaya's talking about. It's called Utopia. Their rides are really fun and the tickets are pretty cheap. Probably about two hundred per kid and since we're underage, it'll cost around five thousand."

"It looks like we need more than that ten thousand, then." Nadeshiko murmured, sorting through the files on the table. "There's this bus service that charges around five hundred per hour for its services… Ah, I found it." She pulled a folder out from the stack and handed it to Kuukai.

Kuukai nodded. "All right. Then that's tickets and transport settled. What about food?"

"I can handle food." The unexpected volunteer caused the four Guardians to stare at Amu in surprise. "What?" she asked defensively. "I settle the food, just write down what you want me to make for the children."

"You can cook?" Yaya asked her in surprise.

"Of course. With Sue, I can make the food that you want for the children." Amu replied. "Right, Sue?"

Sue agreed cheerfully. "Miki can help with the designs on the food." She suggested.

"Well, then that's food for Amu-san…" Tadase wrote it down and dug out a file. "We've thought about suitable foods for the children. Here's a list of them." He handed it to Amu.

Amu read through the list and asked, "What about rice balls?"

"Rice balls?" Kuukai asked.

"Well, I used to make them with my… mother when I was younger. We'd roll the rice into balls and stick some seaweed at the bottom of it." Amu explained. "Children like it better than sushi and some other foodstuff."

Tadase and Nadeshiko exchanged glances before Nadeshiko nodded. "Alright. Then we'll use that." She agreed to Amu's suggestion.

Amu nodded. "Is there anything else that needs my help…?" She asked.

"Well…" Tadase seemed to remember something and he looked at Kuukai for a moment before he started. "There _is _one matter… We've heard that you're in the Easter Corporations, Amu-san…"

Amu stiffened. She had expected the interrogation… "And?" she asked coldly.

"Well, we're not asking anything from you, Amu-san, but just make sure that you're sure that you want to join the Easter Corporations… We don't want anything to happen to you…" Tadase said. "Just… take care, alright?"

Amu nodded again, "Alright." She replied. "Anything else?"

"No," Tadase shook his head. "Just make sure to calculate the amount of money you'll be using and what you're going to make for the children. We need it for the report and records."

Amu dipped her head in acknowledgement and got up. "I'll see you tomorrow, then." She told the others and left the greenhouse.

**HIKARUHIKARHIKARUHIKARU**

"Now, kids, gather around!" The matron of the orphanage called and the kids of the orphanage crowded around the matron excitedly. Today was the day they would go out with a bunch of kids from the Seiyo Elementary School and the matron had told them that they would be going to an amusement park. Most of the children were excited at the prospect of going to the amusement park except for one of them. His name was Hikaru Ichinomiya.

"Hikaru, you're with this group of children…" the matron ushered the small blonde boy to stand with two other girls and another boy who had dark green hair and blue eyes. If Hikaru wasn't wrong, his name was Kairi Sanjou and he was ten years old—just four years older than Hikaru himself. Hikaru barely spared the other two girls a glance. He was more interested in Kairi.

He knew that Kairi was more… special than anyone he'd ever met. Mostly because he had some kind of small character flying around his head. It was a small samurai character that looked mostly like Kairi and Kairi called him Musashi (whatever that meant). Hikaru never revealed to anyone that he could see this small character ever since he started seeing it—which was a month ago—but he did not want to be sent away to a mental hospital.

"Alright, everyone, you'll be wearing different coloured bands so that the Guardians can keep a look out for you." The matron instructed them as she handed the bands out to the five groups. There were five colours: Yellow, blue, brown, orange and pink. Hikaru's group was the one that received the pink ribbon.

Hikaru didn't mind the pink, neither did Kairi—but the two girls squealed in delight and started to whisper to each other. Probably gossiping, Hikaru thought as he watched them before turning his attention to the door, waiting for Seiyo Academy group.

They had been on many outings before, so why should this one be any different? Hikaru thought to himself.

Little did he know that this excursion was going to be completely different.

**AMUAMUAMUAMU**

"Yaya, stop spraying water at me!" Amu called to the younger Guardian as she tried to shield her group and herself from the water.

"No way!" Yaya shrieked as Amu retaliated by aiming the water gun at her.

"Kids, it's time to go!" Nagihiko called from the side of the pool. Amu nodded once before Yaya managed to dump a bucket of water on her.

**AMUAMUAMUAMU**

"Sorry." Yaya apologized yet again.

"You're lucky that I thought to bring a change of clothes." Amu grumbled as she dried her hair with a towel she had brought along.

"Aw, don't be grumpy, Amu-chi." Yaya giggled. "After all, you can still clean up."

"Yeah, yeah…" Amu replied from under the towel. Then she grabbed her clothes and entered an empty cubicle.

Spending the last few days with the Guardians had been… relaxing. It wasn't that she disliked them or anything of the sort, but over the course of three days, she found herself growing closer to them. Nadeshiko—or Nagihiko—was actually quite nice and it was astounding that he was able to deal with any situations dressed as a girl. He had decided to come as a boy this day, claiming that his twin sister, Nadeshiko had to go for a competition and hence he was here to take her place.

"Amu-chi," Yaya broke Amu out of her thoughts. Amu turned to look at the brunette. "Did you notice that kid in your group… I think he's called Kairi?"

"What about him?" Amu asked, pulling on her dry clothes in the safety of a cubicle.

"He has a Shugo Chara." Yaya told her.

"I know." Amu replied. "It's called Musashi, if I'm not wrong."

Yaya gaped at the cubicle for a moment. "You knew that he had a Shugo Chara?"

"Yeah," Amu exited from the cubicle. "I saw them talking to each other. His full name is Kairi Sanjou… It makes me wonder if he is Yukari's long-lost little brother."

"Yukari?"

"…My… friend. Her house was burned down when she was ten years old. They never found the body of her little brother among the ashes, so I think that he's still alive. Yukari's been searching for him ever since then… and that happened ten years ago, so he should fit the criteria…" Amu told her. "I think she said that his name was Kairi, as a matter of fact."

"Really?" Yaya looked at her with wide eyes.

Amu nodded. "I called her when I found out. She should be coming over around now…"

Their conversation was cut off when a high-pitched scream echoed from outside the toilet. Amu and Yaya exchanged startled looks before both of them dashed out of the toilet. What greeted them was total chaos—people were running in the direction of the exit and there was a voice crying 'Impossible'.

"Oh no!" Yaya cried. "Hurry, Amu-chi, it's an X-egg!"

"A what?" Amu asked incredulously.

"An X-egg… Well, Tadase can explain it to you. Hurry, we need to find the rest of them!" Yaya pulled Amu by her hand and led her against the crowd. "Nagihiko has probably taken the rest of the children outside, so it's only Tadase, Kuukai, you and me left in this building. We need to get rid of the X-egg before it harms someone else!"

"What do you mean by X-egg?" Amu asked again as they squeezed through the crowd.

"There they are!" Yaya responded instead of replying Amu. She pointed out the two other Guardians to Amu, then waved to catch their attention. "Tadase! Kuukai!"

The two Guardians turned to see the two girls struggling towards them. Kuukai started running towards them as soon as he caught sight of them, throwing glances over his shoulder as Tadase tried to deal with a black egg in Character Change mode.

"Amu, can you do the Character Transformation again?" Kuukai asked as he grabbed Amu. "We need to get rid of the X-egg quickly—"

"What's an X-egg?" Amu cried, wrenching her arm from Kuukai. "Why do you need to worry about it so much, anyway?"

Kuukai threw her a surprised look before he turned to Yaya. "You didn't tell her?" he asked the younger girl. Yaya shook her head. Kuukai sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Well, I can only remember what the Headmaster told me about X-eggs… It goes like this: should the child with the Heart's Egg become burdened by worries and doubts, the Heart's Egg will slowly become tainted with a black color. If the child gives up his or her dreams instead of pursuing them, it will eventually become an evil and mischievous X-Egg and attack everyone in sight when it hatches into an X-Character." Kuukai ranted off in one breath. "Understand?"

"…Yes." Amu replied. "And why do you need me for this?"

"You can do the Character Transformation with one of your Charas, right? With Character Transformation, you'll have more power to get rid of the X-egg." Kuukai said.

"But I… I don't know how to initiate the Character Transformation!" Amu cried.

"What?" Kuukai stared at her.

"The only Character Transformation I've done before is when Ran, Miki, Sue and Dia were born—and that first time I had the Humpty Lock." Amu told him.

Their conversation was interrupted when Yaya called out "Watch out!" and Kuukai suddenly dived to one side, knocking Amu out of the way of a burst of dark purple energy.

"Impossible!"

Amu looked up to see a black egg with a white cross hovering above her head. "Impossible!" It said again before blasting another bout of dark energy at them.

"Is that an X-egg?" she shouted as she and Kuukai separated, the dark energy striking the ground between them.

"Yes!"

"Amu-chi!" Amu turned to Yaya who had called and saw her pointing to a small boy, who had wandered near the edge of the pond. The X-egg had turned its attention to the boy when Yaya called Amu's name. Amu recognized the boy. He was from her group and his name was Hikaru.

"Hikaru!" Amu called out as she dashed towards Hikaru, hoping that she would reach him in time. The X-egg started to gather its energy… She wouldn't be in time—!

Then another boy ran forward and pushed Hikaru to one side and both of them tumbled into a pool of water beside them. Amu knew that boy—he was the topic of her conversation with Yaya earlier.

"Kairi!"

Amu stopped. Floating after Kairi was a Chara. A samurai Chara, to be exact. It was Musashi…

The dark energy splashed against the floor harmlessly. But the X-egg was determined and Amu saw it turning back to the pool. She had to do something—she had to stop it before the X-egg reached the two children!

"Amu-chan! Character Transform with me!" Ran appeared by her side suddenly. Miki, Sue and Dia followed along behind her.

"Guys! I thought you were in the Royal Garden with Kiseki and the others…" Amu stared at them, surprised, but grateful. Ran had brought the Humpty Lock along with her as well.

"How could we have missed this fun excursion?" Sue winked, "Of course we had to come along!"

"You—" Amu shook her head in exasperation. "Never mind that, now. Ran, Character Transform!"

"Of course!" Ran popped into her egg.

"My own heart—Unlock!"

**AMUAMUAMUAMUAMU**

"Amu-chi, that was so cool!" Yaya squealed as she jumped onto Amu after she had separated from Ran.

"Um… Yaya, I think you're choking her." Tadase pointed out as Amu choked.

"Oh!" Yaya released Amu immediately. "Sorry!"

"I'm alright." Amu replied, rubbing her neck. "Let's go find Nagihiko and the other children." She put her hand around Hikaru's shoulder and pushed him forward to Kuukai, who had returned with two towels. Kuukai handed one to Kairi and the other to Hikaru before the four Guardians started to leave the amusement park.

The three Guardians made idle talk while Amu remained quiet, watching the two children. Finally, Hikaru broke the silence.

"What… was that?" he asked softly.

The four Guardians exchanged glances before Amu spoke. "You can see the Charas, can't you? I saw you looking at Musashi a couple of times."

"Charas? That's what you call them?" Hikaru asked while Kairi stared at Amu in surprise. He had not expected Amu to know about his Chara.

"I heard you calling him that." Amu explained to Kairi while Tadase started to explain to Hikaru what Shugo Charas were.

"Hey, Kairi, what do you know about your family?" Amu moved Kairi to one side away from the Guardians.

"My family?" Kairi looked at her in confusion. "I heard that their surname was Sanjou and that my parents died in a fire."

"What about a sister?" Amu asked.

"They said I had one but they never found her after that accident, so I was sent to the orphanage." Kairi replied.

"Well, I think I can help you with that." Amu told him. "She's coming to see you in about an hour's time. I called her when I saw you and told her that you might be related."

"Really?" Kairi's eyes widened.

"Yes." Amu replied before she looked towards where Hikaru was with the Guardians. "And I think I have some plans to make."

**AMUAMUAMUAMU**

"He can see the Charas; this is not common…" Tadase mused. "I have never seen a child who could see Charas before."

"My sister can." Amu interrupted their conversation. "She always grabs Ran, Miki, Sue and Dia to play dolls with her, as a matter of fact."

"Truly?" Tadase peered at her in interest. "I didn't know that."

Amu shrugged her shoulders. "You've only known me for a few days." She said.

"But we can't leave him in the orphanage. He can see Charas—shouldn't that be enough for him to join Seiyo Academy? He has a possibility of becoming a Guardian." Kuukai joined in.

"Well… I might be able to help with that." Amu smiled, looking at Hikaru, remembering the incident that had happened earlier. She kneeled down and looked at Hikaru in the eye. "Hey, Hikaru, what do you say to becoming my little brother?"


	6. Chapter 5

Akirina: I'm not sure how this turned out... It may be slightly out of character... Thanks for the reviews and taking interest in my story! :)

Chapter 5

"Uncle Henry, Aunt Sarah, this is Hikaru." Amu introduced the shy boy to her relatives. "I decided to adopt him as my little brother."

Silence reigned in the house for a moment before Amu's aunt exploded.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, AMU? YOU CAN'T JUST BRING A BOY BACK HERE AND DECLARE HIM YOUR BROTHER!" She yelled, her blue eyes flashing angrily, her red hair mussed up.

"I've already filled out the paper work. And because I am also the oldest of the Hinamori family, I can make decisions about who is to join the family and who is to not." Amu stated bluntly as she pulled Hikaru up from the couch. "If you're done here, I'll show Hikaru to his room and introduce him to Ami."

Her uncle and aunt stared at her coldly for a moment before Uncle Henry nodded his blonde head, his green eyes fixing on Amu. "Go." He told her.

As Amu left the room, she heard her aunt and uncle break out into a soft but muffle argument. She led Hikaru up the stairs and said, "I'm sorry that you had to see both of them."

"I don't understand." Hikaru said, slightly confused. "You say that they are your aunt and uncle, then why do you have control over such matters?"

"That's because they aren't part of the Hinamori family." Amu explained. "Aunt Sarah is my mother's half-sister. In actuality, she has no claim to the Hinamori name. She's just acting as a guardian until I am of age. And I am—or will be— the Head of the Hinamori family, so I get to have a say in family matters."

"Is that so…" Hikaru murmured.

"Onee-san, you're back!" A small bundle of energy charged out from one of the rooms and collided with Amu.

"Ami!" Amu staggered back, a smile on her face as she looked at her sister. "Yeah, I'm back. Here, I want you to meet someone. He's your new brother." Amu looked up and pulled Hikaru closer. "Ami, this is Hikaru. He's the new member of our little family."

Hikaru's first impression of Ami was brown. And very cheerful. Ami had big brown eyes and hair, almost the complete opposite of her—their—sister, Amu. She studied Hikaru for a moment and in the next instant, Hikaru found himself being cuddled by his new sister.

"Ami!" Amu reached out to pull her sister from Hikaru, "You're choking him!" She could see Hikaru's face turning slightly blue.

"Oh." Ami pulled away with a sheepish smile. "Sorry."

Hikaru coughed for a while before he asked Ami, "How old are you?"

Ami thought for a while before she answered, "Three! Going to four!"

Hikaru nodded and looked to Amu again. "You were going to show me my room?"

Amu nodded and led her two siblings to a room one door down the hallway. She pushed it open and stepped inside. "It used to be a guest room, so all we need to do now it redecorate it for you." She told Hikaru as the young boy took in the blue spread of the bed and the sapphire walls speckled with golden stars. There was a bookcase against one wall and a desk beside it. A window was positioned above the ledge of the desk, looking down upon the street outside their house. The wardrobe stood against the adjacent wall with the bed.

"It's beautiful." Hikaru breathed, hardly daring to believe it. This was his room. He did not need to squeeze with two other children anymore!

"My room is just beside yours," Amu said, pulling Hikaru's attention away from his room as his sister pointed to the room just beside the staircase. "And Ami's room is directly across my room."

"Uncle Henry and Aunt Sarah stay in the room at the opposite end of the hallway, so you wouldn't get to stumble into their room by accident. The toilet for us is down our side of the hallway. There are two, so you can take one while Ami and I will share the other." Amu continued.

"I've registered you for Seiyo Academy, if you don't mind. School begins on Monday and I've already prepared the stuff that you will need. It's all in the bookcase and the wardrobe. You can find some other casual outfits in your wardrobe as well." Amu walked over to the wardrobe and pulled it open, revealing the clothes stored in it.

"Any questions?" She asked Hikaru.

Hikaru shook his head. "No."

"Good. Now, let's spend some family time together." She led them to her room where they spent the next few hours playing and watching television, getting to know each other even more. Then when it was time for dinner, Amu ordered some food from outside and ate with her siblings in her room. Uncle Henry and Aunt Sarah had left the house to go to work, which allowed Amu to have free reign of all activities in the house.

When it was time for her siblings to go to bed, Amu wanted to usher them to their rooms, but relented to Ami's request to sleep with her. And Hikaru was already asleep by then, worn out by the day's events. Amu sighed and lifted her two siblings into bed with her. The bed was big enough to hold the three of them and Amu thought absentmindedly that she would have to get a queen-sized bed if her siblings were going to continue sleeping with her every night. She breathed slowly and heard the crack of eggs as her Charas floated out of their eggs. They had been waiting for a chance to talk with her alone.

"Why did you decide to take him in, Amu-chan?" she heard Sue ask quietly.

"Because of what he told me when we were at the amusement park." Amu replied just as quietly.

"What did he tell you?" Dia asked.

"He said that the four-leaf clover may be simple, but it was a symbol of great power." Amu answered. "It's nothing much, but that's what my father used to tell me when we went to find four-leaf clovers."

"So you suspect that he has something do with your father?" Miki asked.

"I don't suspect. I _know_ that this has something to do with dad." Amu looked down at Hikaru. "Besides, he is basically a combination of Uncle Henry and Aunt Sarah. He has her blue eyes and his blonde hair… But his face is like mine."

"It makes sense." Dia said softly, looking over at the sleeping child. "And I can sense that his heart's egg is going to be born soon…"

"Really?" Amu looked at her other Charas. Ran nodded vigorously, as did the other two.

"Well, we'd better sleep early. We still have a long day ahead of us tomorrow." Amu said and her Charas slowly slipped back into the bag she had for them.

"Good night."

**HIKARUHIKARUHIKARUHIKARU**

When Hikaru woke up, he found that he was lying on Amu and being hugged tightly by Ami. It took him a few moments before he could wriggle himself free of Ami and seat up. In the process, he woke Amu up too.

"Hm…" Amu stirred, her eyelids fluttering slowly as she squinted at the light pouring into the room. "Hikaru…?"

"I'm going to bath." Hikaru told her and slipped out of her bed, returning to his room. Hikaru could not help himself but stare at the layout of his room again, walking forward and running his hands over each item in the room. He studied the books in his bookshelf with interest and ran his hands through the clothes Amu had bought for him. They had planned to go out today and Amu would bring him to buy some more stuff that he wanted. Hikaru could not wait to go shopping.

He picked a simple outfit that was a pair of light blue jeans and a white shirt out of the wardrobe. Then he noticed that there were a couple of pairs of shoes lying on the bottom of the wardrobe. He picked out a pair of white sneakers and changed his clothes in the bathroom as well as taking a quick shower.

When he was done with dressing, Hikaru headed down to the kitchen to find some breakfast and found Amu standing at the stove, making pancakes. She waved the fork she was holding at him, motioning for him to seat down at the table.

"What do you want to drink?" Amu asked as she flipped the pancake over.

"Orange juice." Hikaru replied softly.

"Ran, Miki, could you get it?" Amu asked her Charas as Sue directed Amu to slide the pancake onto the plate on the table.

"We're on it, Amu-chan!" Ran and Miki, Amu's Charas flew to the fridge and opened it. Ran darted inside and managed to carry the carton of orange juice out. Hikaru hurried over to take the carton from her before she could drop it and spill everything.

"Whew!" Ran wiped the sweat on her forehead as Miki released the door of the fridge. "Thanks, Hikaru!"

Hikaru threw her a shy glance before he retreated to the table and poured a glass of orange juice for himself. Amu busied herself with preparing three plates for the three of them and she left two pieces for her Charas.

"Would you like strawberries and cream with your pancake?" Amu asked Hikaru as she brought the cream out of the fridge and rinsed the strawberries. "Or just plain apple sauce?"

"Apple sauce." Hikaru replied and Amu served three pieces onto his plate and expertly poured the sauce over the pancakes. She made another plate that was exactly the same as the one she made for Hikaru and the third one, she put strawberries and cream instead of apple sauce.

"Ami likes strawberries and cream and I like apple sauce. But if you have any preferences for pancake servings, just tell me. I'll get it when I come back from school." Amu told Hikaru.

Hikaru nodded, then hesitantly said, "I prefer pancakes with chocolate sauce."

Amu raised her eyebrows at him and nodded. "I'll get a bottle when I get back from school on Monday." She said. "And where's Ami? Did you see her when you came out from the bathroom?" she asked Hikaru.

Hikaru shook his head and Amu groaned. "She's still sleeping, then. I'll go wake her up." Amu left the kitchen and Hikaru was left with her Charas.

"Hikaru-chan, what is your favourite food?" one of Amu's Charas, Sue—Hikaru recognized—asked.

Hikaru picked up his utensils and replied, "Tayaki."

"Tayaki?" Ran perked up. "That's Amu-chan's favourite food, too!"

"Hm," Hikaru replied, seemingly unconcerned, but his eyes betrayed his interest in what his older sister would like.

"In fact, she likes chocolate-flavored ones!" Ran continued happily. "I like the vanilla flavored ones and Sue likes the strawberry-flavored ones. Miki and Dia share the same interests as Amu-chan, though."

Their conversation was interrupted when a hyperactive three-year-old bounced into the room followed by her sister.

"Good morning, Hikaru onii-chan!" Ami chirped cheerfully as she came around to the side of the table where Hikaru was seated to give him a hug and a peck on the cheek.

"Good morning." Hikaru returned and helped Ami into her chair. Amu sank into the chair opposite them. Ami released a delighted cry when she saw a plate of her favourite pancakes with strawberries and cream in front of her.

"We're going out later, Hikaru. I just received word that some of my friends are transferring to Seiyo Academy and I thought it would be good if you had some friends." Amu told him.

"Friends?" Hikaru asked quietly.

"I'm sure you know one of them." She smiled at Hikaru kindly.

"Who?"

"You'll just have to see." Amu replied mysteriously and turned her attention to the food in front of her.

**AMUAMUAMUAMU**

"The friends I'm taking you to meet were the first friends I made when I was younger." Amu told Hikaru. "I'll introduce you to them properly when we meet."

"You said that I know one of them…" Hikaru prompted, looking at Amu curiously. "Who is it?"

Amu smiled. "He's from your orphanage." She said and left it at that. Hikaru was left to wonder just who on earth was she referring to.

"We're here, Hikaru!" Amu announced as they came to a halt outside a big mansion. Hikaru couldn't help himself but stare at the enormous structure in surprise. He had never seen such a beautiful structure before—it was to be expected since the orphanage rarely allowed them to leave the house.

"Come on!" Amu tugged him, smiling at his awestruck expression. "They're waiting."

"Who's waiting?" Hikaru asked, tugging his attention back to his sister as she led him up the paved road towards the grand mansion.

"My friends," Amu answered. "They've reached and they're waiting in the mansion."

Hikaru followed her obediently, his eyes trailing over every feature of the magnificent place. It was simply indescribable. Potted plants littered the lawn and the mansion was a perfect beige colour with greens and blues decorating the pillars and swirling around the windows. The majestic oak doors swung open to admit the two of them and Amu was attacked by a bundle of blonde energy.

"Amu!" The young girl cried and Hikaru stared the blonde-haired brown-eyed girl in surprise. She looked younger than Amu, like she was an eleven-year-old.

"Rima!" Amu greeted her friend and hugged her back. "It's good to see you. I've missed you."

"And even though you missed me, you neglected to tell me that you had returned from Europe?" Rima returned. "I was heart-broken when I had to receive news about you from my boyfriend!"

"Your boyfriend?" Amu stared at Rima incredulously. How could Rima have a boyfriend? She hardly went out and spent all day at home reading books about jokes!

"Yes," Rima huffed impatiently. "Come on, he's waiting inside!" She tugged on Amu's hand and led her into the house before turning her attention to Hikaru.

Amu puzzled over the information that Rima had a boyfriend. She wracked her brains, trying to figure out who it was that knew her and could pass on such information about her to Rima. It could only be a student at Seiyo Academy or someone at Easter—Amu ruled the latter one out.

"Oh, I'll drop you a hint about my boyfriend, Amu." Rima turned to Amu, knowing that her friend was trying to figure out who it was before they reached the sitting room. "He's my arranged fiancé. My parents arranged the wedding, but before we knew it, we had fallen in love with each other."

"That's not enough!" Amu cried. "That's hardly enough information for me to guess who he is!"

"Well, you know him very well, Amu." Rima replied. "There isn't a day at school that you don't go without seeing him at least once."

Amu huffed in frustration. This was impossible!

"Why don't you just give up and wait until we reach the seating room?" Rima asked, amused by her friend's efforts. "You'll be seeing him soon, anyway."

"It's not soon enough!" Amu argued back. "And why did your parents have to make the seating room near the opposite side of the house?" she huffed.

"Security." Rima replied absent-mindedly before she returned to her conversation with Hikaru about Amu.

Amu ignored them and took out her phone, determined to do some investigation. Surely the Internet would hold answers to who was Rima's fiancé! She typed in Rima's name and opened entered a website that wrote every single detail about Rima's life. Her eyes scanned through the information and her eyes widened as she gaped at the screen.

No… This wasn't possible…

"Kusu kusu… You've figured it out already?" Amu whirled around to see Rima's Shugo Chara, Kusu Kusu floating behind her.

"It can't be possible." Amu argued. "How did she manage to get engaged with… with _him_?"

"Kusu kusu," Kusu Kusu sniggered. "As you say, it was love at first sight. They had a disagreement when they first met and like they say, the rest is history."

"But… but…" Amu spluttered.

"Amu, are you planning to stand there forever?" Rima turned to her friend and stopped in front of a set of doors.

"I… I'm coming." Amu muttered and she started walking towards Rima. Rima smiled at her and pushed open the doors, announcing, "They're here, Nagi!"

"Oh," 'Nagi' replied and Amu rounded the corner to see—

"Amu-chan?" The male version of Nadeshiko stared at Amu in open shock and Amu assumed that Rima had not informed Nagihiko of who was to visit her.

"Hi, Nagihiko—or should I say, Nadeshiko?" Amu greeted her classmate rather scathingly, an expression of annoyance settling upon her face.

"Rima, why'd you engage yourself to him of all people? Do you know how mortifying it is to know that your classmate is engaged to your best friend?" Amu asked Rima.

Rima laughed as she seated herself beside Nagihiko and left Hikaru and Amu standing. "Well, I wasn't thinking about embarrassing you, Amu. But, you know, things just happened."

"Yes, I suppose so." Amu rolled her eyes and studied the room, her gaze landing on Yukari and her charge.

"Ah, Hikaru." She tapped her little brother on the shoulder. "There is the person I told you that you would recognize."

Hikaru turned to look and he blinked in surprise.

"…Kairi?"

"Hikaru?" Kairi seemed equally surprised at Hikaru's presence. "I didn't know that your sister found you…"

"She adopted me." Hikaru answered quietly. "What about you?"

"Oh. Hikaru, I want you to meet my biological sister, Yukari Sanjou." Kairi introduced his sister.

Yukari stepped forward and offered her hand to Hikaru. "Any friend of Kairi's is a friend of mine." She told him kindly with a small smile.

"Nice to meet you." Hikaru murmured shyly as he shook Yukari's proffered hand.

"Well then, let the party start!" Rima announced.


	7. Chapter 6

**Akirina: Yeah... I don't think this chapter was any good... But pls enjoy!**

Chapter 6

"_Hey, have you heard? There are a couple of transfer students transferring into Seiyo this term…"_

"_I heard that there are four of them transferring in!"_

"_I heard that one of them is Hinamori-senpai's little brother!"_

"I wish they'd slow down the rumor mill." Amu sighed to Hikaru as she led him to the Royal Garden for refuge before the school started. She had managed to sneak in with him just before everyone arrived and had left her bag in her classroom before accompanying Hikaru to the staffroom.

"It can't be helped." Hikaru replied as he stared down at the bag in his hands. Hikaru was dressed in the normal school uniform but he had a white jacket draped over his shoulders despite the warm weather.

"Don't you feel hot in that, Hikaru?" Amu asked, studying her little brother.

Hikaru shook his head. "It's made of silk, so it doesn't feel hot."

"You're sure?" Amu asked in concern. "If you start to feel hot, you'd better take it off. I don't want you to get a heat stroke or anything of the sort."

Hikaru nodded as the siblings reached the staffroom. "Nikaidou-sensei?" Amu called as she poked her head into the room. One of the teachers raised his head and sighed upon seeing Amu. He got up and made his way to Amu.

Hikaru took note of the teacher's appearance. He had messy brown hair and brown eyes. A brunette. And he was apparently an acquaintance of Amu's, seeing how he had reacted to her presence.

"Hinamori-san, what did I tell you about—" Nikaidou started when Amu turned to Hikaru and smiled brightly, interrupting the teacher.

"Hikaru, this is Nikaidou. He's Yukari's boyfriend, so I know him very well. If you happen to get into any trouble, just call upon him." Amu told Hikaru quietly.

"Hey, I'm not some pet, you know. I'm a teacher. _Teacher_." Nikaidou emphasized.

"If you look out for Hikaru, I'll consider half of the debt paid." Amu bargained.

Nikaidou stopped and stared at Hikaru for a moment before he turned his stare to Amu. "Really?"

"No, I'm kidding with you. Of course I mean it!" Amu rolled her eyes. "Just look after him, alright? Don't let anyone hurt him."

"He must be very important to you, Amu." Nikaidou murmured quietly to her.

"Of course he is. But if the kids want him to 'prove' that he is my little brother, it'll be tough for him." Amu told him.

"I'll watch out for him." Nikaidou assured her. Amu breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks." She told him before turning to Hikaru. "Hikaru?"

"Thank you." The boy replied solemnly, turning his light blue eyes to Nikaidou.

Nikaidou nodded and Amu pulled Hikaru away. "Come on, Hikaru, I have to introduce you to the Guardians…"

**AMUAMUAMUAMU**

"Hey guys," Amu started when she entered the Royal Garden. Then she stopped. The Royal Garden was filled with people. Well, people that she recognized. As usual, there were the four other Guardians. Then, Rima and Kairi stood amidst them and Amu finally realized the situation. Rima was the same age as her and Kairi was the same age as Yaya, which made things difficult for everyone.

"Have you been introduced yet?" Amu asked, glancing briefly at the chaos that was the Shugo Charas and then back to the Guardians and Rima and Kairi.

"No. We were waiting for you, Amu-chi, since you know all of us." Yaya replied.

"Oh, I see." Amu replied before she started the introductions. "Well, the Guardians are basically a group of students who have Shugo Charas. They organize stuff for the school and they watch out for X-eggs. The King is Hotori Tadase and his Chara is the purple haired one called Kiseki. The Queen is Nadeshiko Fujisaki and her Chara is the one in a kimono called Temari. The Jack is Souma Kuukai and his Chara is the one that has green hair called Daichi. The Ace is Yaya Yuiki and her Chara is the one that looks like a baby called Pepe. Guys, this is Rima, my friend when I first started school and Kairi who was in my group at the orphanage. I helped him to find his sister. Kairi's Chara is the samurai one called Musashi and Rima's Chara is the one that looks like a clown called Kusu kusu."

"Nice to meet you." Tadase told the transfer students. "Um, I think the Headmaster told you about the new arrangements…?"

Rima and Kairi shook his head and Tadase sighed. "Honestly, that guy should be more responsible…"

Then he said, "Rima, you'll take Nadeshiko' position as Queen. Uhm… Nadeshiko… Well, she's going overseas, so the position will be free…"

"What?" Amu and Yaya stared at Nadeshiko. "Why are you going overseas?"

"I want to learn more about dancing." Nadeshiko replied honestly. "I'll miss everyone, but I'll be back."

"Then will your twin brother be joining us?" Amu asked, catching on quickly. Nadeshiko moved uneasily.

"Ah, he'll probably transfer over in a week or so." Nadeshiko answered as truthfully as she could.

"You'd better pray that he does, or I'll knock your head in." Amu threatened.

"Nadeshiko has a twin brother?" Yaya asked incredulously as Tadase and Kuukai looked at her with slight surprise. Well, she had mentioned that when she first met them…

"Yes. His name is Nagihiko and he is Rima's fiancé." Amu replied.

Everyone gasped, turning to Rima. Finally Yaya asked, "You're engaged?"

"Yes." Rima looked slightly annoyed. "I'm engaged to Fujisaki Nagihiko."

"What?" came the collative responses from their audience.

"At such a young age? But Rima-chan, are you sure?" Yaya asked.

"It's nothing much." Rima was getting annoyed. "There's no need to make a huge fuss over it. Tadase, continue."

"Um… yes. Well, Nagihiko will be taking over the Joker position after Kuukai leaves at the end of the year. And Kairi will be the Junior to the Joker position." Tadase finished.

"Did the Headmaster say anything about Hikaru?" Amu asked.

"Hikaru…? Oh, your little brother? Well, he did mention that Hikaru would be Apprentice to the King position." Tadase told her.

Everyone's attention turned to Hikaru, who shrank back, uncomfortable at the attention and he clung on to Amu's hand, one other hand fisted in her skirt. Amu smiled at them, "He's a little shy." She explained. Then the conversation headed to how they would settle the Guardian duties and it was decided that Kairi would do the planning for the Guardian's schedule.

"Amu will be doing Guardian duty the most." Kuukai told Kairi. "She is the only one who is able to Character Transform among us."

"Rima also knows how to Character Transform." Amu added unexpectedly. "And she is able to do it at will."

"Really? That's interesting." Kairi turned to Rima. "Will you mind showing us that later after school?"

Rima scowled at Amu and stuck her tongue out at the taller girl when she thought no one was looking was looking. Everyone had to stifle their chuckles.

**HIKARUHIKARUHIKARUHIKARU**

"Class, this is Hinamori Hikaru and he will be joining our class." Nikaidou introduced the new transfer student to the class. "Now, Hinamori-san, will you mind introducing yourself to the others?"

Hikaru looked at Nikaidou before he faced the class and said, "I was adopted by my sister just last week. I like to read and collect things."

"What did you use to collect?" Nikaidou asked curiously.

"Pretty stones." Hikaru replied. "But I had to leave them behind when I moved in with my sister. I don't know whether I should continue collecting them or if I should start a new collection of other things."

"Is that so? That's interesting." Nikaidou told him before turning back to the class. "Now, where will you seat…?"

Most of the students raised their hands eagerly and Nikaidou picked out a girl from the front of the class. "Ah, you can seat beside Rikka-chan." Nikaidou guided Hikaru to the grinning girl. "She will help you around the school and in class."

"Nice to meet you, Hikaru! I'm Rikka Hiiragi, but you may call me Rikka." Rikka told him cheerfully. " l hope I can get to know you better!"

"…Nice to meet you." Hikaru replied shyly as he took the place next to Rikka and focused his attention on the teacher.

**AMUAMUAMUAMUAMU**

"Amu-chi!" Yaya poked her head into the classroom as the bell rang, signaling the starting of break time. "We've a meeting…"

"What? Can't it wait until after break time?" Amu asked as she finished typing in her laptop. She was finishing a report to the Gozen and was starting on some statistics that she had to handle for Utau.

"Hoshina Utau's here!" Yaya squealed none-too-softly. "And we've found another Guardian Apprentice!"

"What? Utau's here?" Amu closed her laptop quickly, standing up immediately. "She didn't tell me she was coming!"

"Well…" Yaya dragged it out. "She said it was a surprise visit. She's thinking of transferring over here so that she can communicate with you more easily."

"She told you that?" Amu asked, slinging her laptop bag over her shoulder and heading towards Yaya. "I thought she was just joking."

"Yes, she thought you would say that too." Yaya bounced eagerly. "She's just so cool!"

"I'll bet." Amu murmured, having already expected the response of her classmate. "Come on, let's go down to the Royal Garden."

**UTAUUTAUUTAUUTAU**

Tsukiyomi Utau, also known as Hoshina Utau sat in the Royal Garden daintily sipping at some Earl Grey tea that had been prepared for her. She had dropped in to the Royal Garden to visit Hinamori Amu, her new manager after Yukari had decided to resign, and had decided to inform Amu of the decision she had made to join Seiyo Academy.

"Utau!"

Utau looked up, briefly distracted from her drink and watched as the pink-haired girl entered the room with a brunette following her.

"Amu," Utau greeted coolly as she stood up. "I need to talk to you alone."

Both girls froze in the doorway to the Royal Garden and Amu nodded slowly, murmuring something to the brunette before she gestured for Utau to follow her. They left the Royal Garden quickly, Utau remembering to bring the case that she had been told to bring and as soon as they were out of earshot, she started to talk.

"Amu, Gozen sent me on this mission."

Amu froze, turning to look at Utau. "It's decided?"

"Yes." Utau handed her the white bag she had been holding and Amu looked down at it before she returned her gaze to Utau.

"I hate this." She confessed, accepting the case from Utau, a bitter look in her eyes.

Utau kept silent, knowing what Amu was going through since she was experiencing the same thing. She had not wanted to join Easter, but when they threatened to kill her family, Utau had unwillingly pledged her services to Easter. She knew the power of Easter, seeing as her stepfather had been the previous Gozen (but had been killed by the current one) and knew that Easter had enough power to wipe her family out. Especially now that they had Ikuto.

"The first performance will be after school." Utau told her. "Gozen wants us to take the eggs and put an X on them. And since Seiyo Academy has a large number of students…"

"I understand." Amu sighed. "I'll meet you at the general office of the school. That's where they broadcast the music and such."

"Alright. I'll get someone to take me there later." Utau replied.

Utau watched as her friend walked away, vanishing into the school. She remembered the first time they'd met—when both of them were seven years old and they were in a park. Amu had been wandering around and had met her father, Tsukiyomi Aruto. Upon realizing that he could play the violin, Amu had pestered the older man into teaching her and he had given her lessons thrice a week.

Amu and Utau had met, a coincidence, as Aruto had bought his daughter to the park with him. He had then allowed the two girls to play together—which consisted more of bickering—and in the end, Amu had played the violin while Utau sang.

Utau never admitted this, but if she compared Amu and her brother, Ikuto, she would say that their violin skills were perfectly compatible to each other.

And after her father disappeared, she had never seen Amu. That was, until one year ago.

**HIKARUHIKARUHIKARUHIKARU**

Hikaru took a bite out of his sandwich that Rikka had given to him at lunch. Actually, she had given him two, seeing as he and Amu had forgotten about packing some food, but he had not been hungry. This sandwich was proving as a good snack—Hikaru felt knackered from all the studying. While they had the same curriculum in the orphanage, the syllabus at Seiyo Academy had covered more in depth.

"Hikaru! Let's go back together, ok?" Rikka pounced on him happily. Rikka had developed a rather affectionate way of talking to Hikaru—not that the boy minded, but it was rather odd having a girl treat him like that.

"Well, I need to wait for my sister…" Hikaru ventured softly.

Rikka blinked. "Oh! I'll wait with you then. Let's go find a seat!" She eagerly dragged Hikaru over to one of the benches at the school gate and seated them down before starting to talk to him about the homework their teachers had assigned them.

Hikaru could only wish that he could go home quickly. He was tired and he had a dreadful headache.

**AMUAMUAMUAMUAMUAMU**

"Are you prepared?" Amu asked the blonde, amethyst-eyed girl as she removed the white violin from her case. It was in perfect condition, but there was something in that violin that left much to be desired.

"Yes." Utau replied as she positioned the microphone slightly. "You can start any time you want."

Amu nodded and clicked on the broadcast button. She settled the bow over the strings and pulled gently. Utau joined in after the first cord, beginning the demonic melody that would draw out the Heart Eggs and place an X on them.

**HIKARUHIKARUHIKARUHIKARU**

"I wonder what's taking your sister so long…" Rikka murmured as she swung her legs impatiently. Sure, most of the students were staying back for clubs, societies and the likes. But surely Hinamori-san knew that Hikaru was waiting for her!

"There's probably some kind of Guardian matter…" Hikaru muttered to her as he read his textbook. "She'll take some time, at least. You could start doing your homework now, you know."

"Yes, but still!" Rikka whined, before she switched topic. "Anyway, speaking of Guardians, I'm to be a Guardian Apprentice to the Queen!" She bounced excitedly, no longer bored. "Have you heard who the new girl is? I heard she's called Mashiro Rima and she's in the same class as Hinamori-sempai!"

"Yeah, she's called Rima." Hikaru replied, not a bit fazed by the information.

Rikka gaped at him. "You've met her? Cool!"

"I'm a Guardian Apprentice too, in fact." Hikaru informed her.

"Really? To whom?"

"The King. I think he's called Tadase."

Rikka squealed excitedly. "This is really cool! Have you seen your Guardian Chara yet? Or has it been born yet?"

"No. But Amu told me that mine would be born some time soon." Hikaru admitted softly. She had told him when he had come to stay with her.

"Oh…" Rikka said. "Well, mine's already born. But it hasn't hatched yet…" Her face lapsed to one of wonder. "I hope it hatches soon! I can't wait to see what my Guardian Chara will be like!"

"Hm…" Hikaru hummed absentmindedly. "I wonder too…"

"What—" Rikka was cut off when a series of chords interrupted their conversation, signaling an announcement was about to be made. The music that came over the speakers situated all over the school distracted their thoughts and Hikaru was awed by the melody of the singing and the violin.

"Isn't that—" Rikka turned to say to Hikaru when something else distracted her thoughts. Her eyes latched onto something beyond Hikaru's shoulder and she gaped. Hikaru, turning at Rikka's words caught her shocked gaze and turned in the direction where she was staring in.

Black eggs rose above the treetops and children. They were marked with a white cross and all of them emanated a purple aura and chanted 'impossible'.

"What… What are they?" Rikka asked, unable to tear her eyes away from the sight.

"X-eggs." Hikaru answered, having seen them before at the orphanage.

"What?" Rikka's gaze swung to him for a moment before she went back to gazing at the nearest X-egg. "I think I can understand them. It's like I can hear their thoughts."

Hikaru blinked at her in surprise and was about to say something when a movement at the peripheral side of his vision caught his attention. The bright pink was certainly enough to attract his attention…

"HIKARU! WATCH OUT!" Amu yelled to her brother as she ran towards him, a whit violin in her hand and she pointed the bow in the direction of Rikka. Hikaru turned quickly and saw that an Egg had snuck up on them without their realizing it. He dove and pushed Rikka to the ground as the Egg unleashed a wave of dark energy at them. Luckily it missed.

Hikaru looked up, feeling frightened and Amu reached them, taking a protective stance in front of her brother. "Ran! Character Transform!"

**AMUAMUAMUAMUAMU**

After a huge cleansing of Eggs, Amu collapsed onto a bench, tired from the activity. She had managed to keep Hikaru and the girl safe, much to her relief.

The Guardians had arrived shortly after and they had managed to help Amu with the cleansing, even though they could not Character Transform just yet.

"Are you all right, Amu-chi?" Yaya asked in concern as the Guardians crowded around the tired girl. "You look very tired."

Amu nodded, still breathing heavily as she tried to reply. "That was a lot of Eggs." She panted, trying to regain her breath. "I think I'm going home early…"

"Go ahead." Tadase nodded, looking rather worried for her. "Get some rest. We'll talk about this tomorrow."

Amu nodded politely to him before she turned to Hikaru. "Hikaru, are you ready to go home?"

Hikaru nodded silently before he turned to the girl. "Onee-chan, this is Rikka Hiiragi. She's my friend."

"Oh, hello, Rikka." Amu greeted the young girl. "It's nice to meet you. You're the new Guardian Apprentice to the Queen, right? I heard you transferred in two months ago."

Rikka nodded, in awe of Amu. "Y-yes…"

"Well, I'll talk to you some other time, ok? I need to get home now…" Amu offered the younger student a tired smile and Rikka nodded enthusiastically.

"Come on, Hikaru. Let's go home." Amu stood up and went to collect her bag and the violin case before she left. Hikaru followed her, still puzzling over what had happened.

The violin had stopped when he saw the X-eggs, but the singing hadn't. Then Amu had ran out with a violin in her hands. Was she involved in this?

**UTAUUTAUUTAUUTAUUTAUUTAU**

"Gozen." Utau bowed respectfully to the hidden figure.

"Well? What did you find out?" the voice-altered figure demanded. Utau hid a wince at the news she was about to deliver.

"Hinamori Amu is a potential traitor. She helped the Guardians to cleanse the X-eggs." Utau reported coldly. "She saved a child from being struck by the dark energy."

"Is that so…" Gozen contemplated. "Very well. You're dismissed."

Utau removed herself from the room, all the while worrying for her friend. She had not wanted to participate in this plan that the Gozen had thought up to determine Amu's loyalty, but Ikuto's life was in jeopardy if she did not agree to it.

"I hope you'll be safe, Amu…" Utau uttered to herself. Maybe Yukari could help out.


	8. Chapter 7

Akirina: It's the 2nd week at school now... Things have turned out to be very busy and I barely have time to do any chapters... This was completed in 2 hours of free time I had, so it might not be very good. Enjoy, though!

Chapter 7

A week had passed without any X-eggs popping up and Amu was having a lot of trouble helping Hikaru adjust to his life, as well as dealing with another Guardian Apprentice. Fotunately, Nagihiko had 'transferred in', so things were more manageable and Amu didn't have to treat him as a girl all the time. Even though he was pretty good at acting like one…

Rikka was a nice girl, passionate and kind to others. It wasn't that Amu didn't like the younger girl—she did—but she couldn't help but think that her junior's questions were rather odd. They ranged from the duties of a Guardian to X-eggs, which Rikka could have learnt more about from the others. So what made her ask Amu all those questions?

Little did Amu know that the temporary peace was going to be broken…

**RIKKARIKKARIKKARIKKARIKKA**

"I'm home!" Rikka hollered into the house as she happily pushed the door open. "Is anyone home?"

Rikka was immediately bombarded with X-eggs that had popped up from every corner of the house and sped toward her immediately. Rikka giggled joyously as the X-eggs provided an enthusiastic welcome for her and she led them to her room. She listened intently to them making a few comments to reassure them as she unpacked her bag and started on her homework.

"I talked to Hinamori-san today," she chattered to the X-eggs when she finally got the chance to get a word in. Instantly, she was blasted with questions from the eager and anxious X-eggs.

Rikka laughed at their behavior before she started to answer the questions that they were asking.

**AMUAMUAMUAMUAMUAMU**

"What are we going to do?" Yaya moaned, slumped on the white table of the Royal Garden. "What are we going to do about the funding? I can't believe we completely forgot to arrange any projects for this…"

"What are you talking about?" Amu asked from the door way to the Royal Garden. She had not shown up for the whole week, busy with keeping the Apprentices… un-bored.

"We had to do a funding project for Easter. You see, we were supporting them in their Hearts Out project for the children in Africa." Tadase replied. "But in the excitement of the past few weeks, we forgot all about it." He pushed a small file towards her. Amu picked the file up, her light brown eyes perusing every piece of information.

"It says that we have until this Friday to raise twenty thousand… Which is five days away." Amu said, looking up finally. "I'm sure we can use that time to make a little money."

"What if we can't raise the required amount by then?" Kuukai asked nonchalantly.

Amu smiled coldly. "I can give you a loan. Free of interest."

**NAGINAGINAGINAGI**

"Nagihiko, have you found the information?"Tadase asked as Amu left the Royal Garden.

"No." Nagihiko shook his head, his long blue hair rippling with his every move. "I can't find a single scrap of records about the Hinamori family. It's like Hinamori Amu doesn't exist."

"Hm…" Tadase frowned. "I suppose we'll have to dig deeper…"

**AMUAMUAMUAMU**

"Amu-chan, what are you planning to do?" the blonde Chara peered down at her master with curious eyes.

"Hm?" Amu murmured sleepily, basking in the warm sunlight. "What do you mean?"

"That funding project." Sue said. "We don't have enough money to give them a loan for twenty thousand." She argued.

"Ah. Well, Sue, I have a plan to raise money by then… And I'm sure Rima would love to help." Amu told her.

"What plan?" Sue asked.

"It's a secret." Amu replied. Then, she relented under Sue's pleading gaze. "Well, it has something to do with my white violin and jokes…"

**RIMARIMARIMARIMA**

"You want me to do _what?_" Rima asked incredulously. "That's crazy!"

"No, it's not." Amu replied calmly. "Come on, Rima, let's just help them… You can collect half of it plus the interest."

Rima paused and her eyes shone greedily. "What else does it have for me?" she asked.

"Well…" Amu grinned slightly. "People will look up to you and come looking for you for guidance to telling a good joke."

"It's a done deal." Rima proclaimed excitedly. "For three days? Then let's meet up at my house to discuss more about this."

"I'm fine with that. Mind if I bring my brother along?"

"I don't mind."

**HIKARUHIKARUHIKARU**

Hikaru couldn't help but feel that something was off. It wasn't the fact that Amu took him to Rima's house and left him in a room to do his homework while she went to talk with Rima. No, that did not make him unsettled.

Maybe it was just a feeling…

And maybe it had something to do with Rikka.

Hikaru hadn't been at Seiyo Academy long, so he couldn't confidently say that he knew what Rikka was like. But she had been acting slightly oddly since she met his sister… Almost as if she were trying to discover something from Amu. Like… like what a spy would do.

Of course, Hikaru couldn't really say that she was acting like a spy. But she was acting in a way that would seem that she was trying to gather information. It wasn't that it was bad, but it was… too much information that Rikka was asking for.

And he knew that Amu knew that too.

"Hikaru, are you ready? We're having dinner here at Rima's. Aunt Sarah and Uncle Henry have taken Ami out for dinner and she's already sleeping." Amu poked her head into the room then.

Hikaru nodded wordlessly. He had not noticed that it was already seven. Past sleeping time for Ami. "What are you going to do about Rikka?" he couldn't help but ask. He wasn't concerned about Rikka, no. But he wanted to know what his sister would do.

Amu didn't show any expression at his question. Instead, she eased herself into the room quietly and asked, "Why do you think that I'm going to do something to Rikka?"

"She's been asking too many questions. She's prying too much into the matter about X-eggs. Is she working for Easter?" Hikaru asked.

Amu blinked slowly, showing her surprise at Hikaru knowing so much about Easter and him picking up on her suspicions that quickly. "You know the answer to that question as well as I do, Hikaru." Amu replied cryptically, wanting to challenge Hikaru. She knew these kind of word dances, she had played with them when she was in America.

"You won't. And you don't think that she's working for Easter." Hikaru replied, showing how much he understood Amu.

Amu smiled at his words. "Then why ask?" she asked back gently.

"I wondered." The two words provided a mystery to Amu.

**RIKKARIKKARIKKARIKKA**

"What do you mean?" Rikka asked as she played monopoly with the X-eggs. "You want to go out?" she asked after the X-egg chirped something.

She received a reply. Rikka bit her lip, staring at the board as one of the other X-eggs moved his piece pass 'Go' and collected two hundred dollars. "I wouldn't mind sneaking you out for a short while… But you must come back when I tell you to, or else Hinamori-sempai will catch you and take you away."

She received an affirmative. "Well, I heard that there is an event that is coming up… something about showing the true potential of jokes and the beauty of music… It's not far from here. I can take you there when I'm free."

**AMUAMUAMU**

Two days later…

"What are we going to do?" Yaya wailed as she collapsed into her chair in the Royal Garden. "This is impossible! We've only managed to raise eight thousand! What are we going to about the remaining twelve thousand?"

"We have no choice…" Tadase spoke over her wails. "We will have to take Hinamori-san up on that offer…"

"Finally decided, haven't you?" the voice broke into their conversation and the assembled Guardians turned to see Amu and Rima at the door to the Royal Garden.

"I'm not collecting any interest. In fact, I can loan you six thousand. Rima can loan you another six thousand, but she will be collecting interest." Amu told them as she walked towards them.

"Interest?" Nagihiko asked nervously, staring at his fiancée. Rima smiled at him.

"Two percent interest per month." She replied sweetly. I'm being generous."

Kuukai and Yaya started to protest, but Kairi interrupted them. "She's right, you know." He said, aware of the other Guardians' stares on him once he uttered the words. He cleared his throat self-consciously and pushed his spectacles up his nose slightly. "She could have asked for ten percent, or maybe hundred percent interest." That was highly unlikely, but still…

"And she could have changed the per month to per week." Exaggeration definitely helped, and the two Guardians sagged with defeat.

"Fine." Tadase sighed, recognizing defeat. "The deadline—"

"We know when the deadline is." Rima interrupted quietly. "We'll have the money prepared for tomorrow."

"Thank you." Tadase could only reply.

**AMUAMUAMUAMUAMU**

"How much left, Dia?" Amu asked as she slumped into a chair. She was exhausted. These past two days, she and Rima had been working for the money to loan to the Guardians. Rima had worked at telling jokes while Amu played music. The great thing about the whole event was that Rima was able to book a place for them to perform and this allowed them to charge the people for an entrance fee.

"One thousand, Amu-chan." Dia replied. "There have been many people who have travelled here to hear the jokes that Rima-chan tell and the music that you play."

"One thousand." Amu sighed in relief. They could make one thousand by tonight. And maybe extra pocket money…

"Dia, limit the tickets for tonight. Total cost will be ten thousand." She ordered and started to doze off. "We don't want to many people to be here for tonight's performance."

"And it'll give people the incentive to buy the tickets. Brilliant plan, Amu-chan." Dia complimented her master before she drifted off to make the arrangements.

**RIKKARIKKARIKKARIKKA**

"Sh!" Rikka hushed the X-eggs hidden in her bag as she searched for her purse. "You don't want the people to catch anything unusual happening, would you?"

She had not expected the tickets to be so expensive! Rima had thought that it would be something like a free-for-all. Unfortunately, she had to pay a hundred yen for the ticket. She had the money… somewhere beneath all the X-eggs…

"You're very lucky." The lady told her as she finally managed to hand the money to her.

"Oh? Why?" Rikka asked curiously.

"Because there are only a hundred seats available tonight." The lady replied. "You just bought the last ticket."

Rikka gaped at her as the lady closed down the counter and she heard many disappointed groans from behind her. There was a long queue behind her, Rikka knew. She had been lucky to leave the house early. Who knew what would have happened if she left later?

The X-eggs chortled happily, excited, in her bag.

**AMUAMUAMUAMU**

Finally.

The Last Performance.

Amu could barely hide a sigh of relief as she drew her bow across the strings in a parting sweep, signaling the end of the song. She had been requested for an encore, and the audience seemed to want more.

Even though this was a performance for Rima to tell her jokes and Amu to play her music, it seemed as if Amu was the one that the audience looked forward to. She couldn't fathom why they would love her music, it was all her own creations… Surely they weren't as good as the professional pieces?

"Thank you for attending the performance…"

A sharp scream pierced through the sober mood. Amu quickly scanned the small crowd and spotted the source of the problem. She cursed.

X-egg.

"Miki!"

"Understood!"

"My own heart—Unlock!"

**RIKKARIKKARIKKARIKKA**

Rikka could barely move when she saw Hinamori-sempai target her friend. She couldn't see when a bright flash of light emanated from Amu. And when she looked again, her friend was gone. The X-egg was gone… how had Amu put it?—purified.

Rikka felt tears roll down her cheeks. She had come out with a bag full of her friends. But now, there were none left. Her friends were gone. She felt rage build up within her chest. Why? How could Hinamori-sempai do this?

Red clouded her vision and Rikka lost control, running to Amu and hitting her with her small fists, striking out with her feet. But Amu seemed to be too fast for her, avoiding her strikes and managing to stop her before she could do any harm.

"Rikka." Amu's calm voice snapped her back to herself. Rikka blinked, staring at the kind pink-haired upperclassman, barely understanding what had just happened.

"Oh God…" Rikka hyperventilated. "Hinamori-sempai…"

Amu sighed and reached forward to pull Rikka into a hug. "I'm sorry."

**AMUAMUAMUAMU**

She had not expected Rikka to be a friend of the X-eggs. Amu didn't know that Rikka cared about them. She didn't know. And now, she did. After managing to calm the younger girl down, Rikka had told her the truth. And Amu understood why she had done it. Well, at least marginally.

"Amu?" Rima looked down at her friend curiously. "Are you ready to give them the money yet? I heard the person is coming to collect the money around now…"

"Oh." Amu stood up, moving to the door of their classroom quickly. "Let's get going then."

**RIMARIMARIMARIMA**

Ever since the incident at the performance last night, Amu had been acting rather strangely. As if she felt remorse towards what she had done… The blonde peered at her friend out of the corner of her eye. The Amu that she knew would not have felt any remorse… Amu had always been an unfeeling, cold girl. What had caused her to change her attitude, though?

"Amu-chi!" The brunette Guardian threw herself at Amu gratefully. "Thank you so much!"

"Hurry up, the person is at the gate already." Nagihiko called to them.

"Of course. Dia?" Amu said.

Dia flew forward with the envelop and handed it to Nagihiko. Nagihiko quickly opened it and slipped a few notes inside. Then he turned to Amu. "Amu-san, you should be the one to give it to the messenger from Easter. After all, you were the one who was in charge of the project…"

Amu sighed roughly. "Fine." She replied, seeing that the rest of the Guardians were either pleading with her or not bothering to help her out. "Come on, Rima."

They hurried down to the gates, wanting to be free of this 'project' as soon as possible. Rima knew the exact reasons why Amu didn't want to seem to be involved with the Guardians… it would be as if she were fraternizing with the enemy.

Rima blinked as Amu stopped in her tracks, staring at the person at the gates. Rima stared at her friend curiously before turning her attention to the gate as well. She was mildly surprised that the person standing there was a blonde with dark blue eyes.

"Tacoma?" Amu whispered in surprise.


	9. Chapter 8

Akirina: Ok, I realize that the characters may be a little OOC from this chapter onwards...? I may not be able to update until after next week... Enjoy!

Chapter 8

"_You disappoint me…"_

"_Why would you say that?"_

"_I had thought that you would have more control over your niece…"_

"_Who?"_

"_Hinamori Amu."_

"… _What she does is her own business."_

"_And you wouldn't stop her?"_

"_No. On the contrary, we'd support her."_

"_Take them away."_

**AMUAMUAMUAMU**

"Aunt Sarah?" Amu poked her head into the empty master bedroom and frowned at the state of the room. The sheets were made—no, the bed hadn't been slept in since last night. Something wasn't right, Amu thought as she closed the door and leaned against the wall. Ever since the day when she met the messenger from Easter, Tacoma, her aunt and uncle had failed to return home.

There was a slight chance that they could have been sent overseas to help Easter in negotiations with other companies, Amu knew. But the timing was too much of a coincidence that she could dismiss it easily. The two were in trouble, maybe even dead, but Amu didn't know.

In any case, this was bad.

Aunt Sarah and Uncle Henry weren't exactly their biological aunt and uncle, but they were cousins of Amu's parents. When Amu's parents died, they became Ami's and her guardians—now including Hikaru—being the only relatives of Amu that were still alive and mentally sound. (She had a great-grandfather who had dementia)

They were only guardians until Amu came of age and took the inheritance of the Hinamori Family. What was it, Amu didn't know and she didn't care. Uncle Henry had told her that the heir to the Hinamori Family always had a duty awaiting them in the family company, but Amu couldn't figure out the hidden message in his words.

Now that they were gone, who would tell her the true inheritance to the Hinamori Family?

"Onee-chan?"Amu turned and smiled when she saw who had called her. Hikaru had picked up the habit of calling her onee-chan a few days ago. Amu thought it was really sweet of him to do so.

"Onee-chan, we need to go to school now." Hikaru stared at her with an uncomprehending expression on his face. Probably trying to figure out what she was thinking, Amu thought. Hikaru had also picked up the habit of trying to read her mind.

"Are you worried, onee-chan?" Hikaru asked as they left the house. "Because Henry and Sarah haven't come home for several days?"

"Yes. It's too much of a coincidence." Amu replied, "I need to talk to Nikaidou later."

"What about Yukari?" Hikaru asked curiously. "Doesn't she have contacts within Easter?"

"Well… that might be true, but I still don't know…" Amu stopped, her mind working quickly, trying to look at the situation from another angle.

"Hikaru, go to school. I'm going to find out more about what exactly is going on. Easter wouldn't kill off Uncle Henry and Aunt Sarah just because I seem to be fraternizing with the enemy…" Amu told Hikaru, murmuring the last part to herself and started off in the other direction.

Yukari would be her first stop.

**YUKARIYUKARIYUKARIYUKARI**

"I haven't heard anything about Henry and Sarah being killed." Yukari told Amu. "My informants tell me that the official reason why they disappeared was due to business in America."

"And the unofficial one?" Amu asked urgently.

Yukari paused in the action of picking up her glass. She threw Amu an intense look.

"You."

"What?" Amu asked incredulously. "What does all this have to do with me?"

Yukari shrugged. "Henry and Sarah actually wanted to protect you from Easter. Henry probably told you that the Hinamori Family has a family company, right?" Amu nodded.

"Well, Gozen actually wanted to wrest the rights to the company from you, as you were the child of his employee and he thought that everything that the employee has should belong to him." Yukari tried to explain.

"He can have the company for all I care." Amu muttered angrily. "Why take out Henry and Sarah?"

"This is rather dangerous, Amu. For all we know, the family company of the Hinamori Family could be some rival of Easter. If Gozen caught on to those… well, he'd gain more power and that isn't really ideal for Easter itself."

"Wait, you mean you don't know where the family company is?" Amu asked.

"I don't even know what it is called," Yukari replied. "No one knows what it is called. Only those of the Hinamori family know its name."

"And my only source just died." Amu growled. "Great. Just great."

"You could ask the bank. They might have some records there." Yukari suggested.

"I did. They don't know. Even worse, they don't have any records of anyone called Hinamori in the city." Amu grumped. "I probably wouldn't even find out until I'm eighty. Or when I've gone to see my parents."

"Don't be so pessimistic." Yukari chided absent-mindedly as she sipped at her coffee. "There's probably someone else out there that they told the secret to. Henry and Sarah aren't so careless with their decisions."

"And I hope you know what you're talking about." Amu said as she stood up, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "I'm going to find Nikaidou."

Yukari raised an eyebrow. "At school? Where you should be right now?"

Amu grinned. "Exactly."

Yukari sighed. "Tell Nikaidou that the wedding will be in two months time." She instructed Amu, who pouted.

"I'm not your messenger!"

**AMUAMUAMUAMUAMU**

"Hop, step, jump!"

Ran cheerily helped Amu to jump over the wall of Seiyo Academy, landing in a space between the bushes and the wall just as a security guard rounded the corner. The guard paused, noticing some movements and headed over to the bush. But all he could see were a patch of bushes and a blank wall, as Miki had successfully disguised them.

As soon as the security guard walked past, Amu quickly sneaked into the school, heading for the staffroom immediately, hoping to catch Nikaidou alone. She entered the room quietly, noting that the other teachers were out and only Nikaidou was left.

"Sensei~" Sue floated towards Nikaidou, spoiling Amu's plan of catching him by surprise. "You shouldn't drink cold coffee. Why don't I make some hot, piping coffee for you?"

Nikaidou looked up in surprise. Seeing Amu standing at the doorway, he smirked. "You're late, Hinamori-san." He informed her.

"Obviously, Nikaidou." Amu rolled her eyes in exasperation and closed the door behind her, locking it. "I need your help."

Nikaidou raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Henry and Sarah are missing. They haven't come back since the day I represented the Guardians and handed the money for the funding to them."

Nikaidou steepled his fingers together. "That's not good news."

"When did I say I had good news?" Amu shot back.

"And so? What do you want me to do?" Nikaidou asked, ignoring her jibe. "I fail to see where I can help you in this."

Amu stared at him, a smile toying on her lips. "I'll make a deal with you. You help me with Hacker-101 and I tell you some good news."

Nikaidou thought for a while, toying with his tie. "Deal." He said finally.

"Gozen." Ikuto knelt respectfully before the pedestal.

"Rise," Gozen replied, behind his curtain. "Ikuto, I want you to carry out an assassination."

Ikuto raised his head sharply at that. An assassination? Why would he…

Gozen chuckled, the sound echoing eerily around the room. "Curious, aren't you?" Gozen said. "The details will be given to you later. Leave."

Ikuto bowed and left the room quickly.

**AMUAMUAMUAMUAMU**

Amu's fingers flew across the keyboard, her eyes glancing down every now and then, but her attention was fixed on the computer screen.

"How is it going?" Nikaidou asked from the phone beside her. "Have you gotten past the first shield?"

"It would be better if no one was here to disturb me." Amu replied absent-mindedly. She was in a café, having gone there after the session with Nikaidou since she didn't want him to be caught if she was discovered.

"I'm curious." Nikaidou told her. "And you still haven't told me the good news yet."

"Later." Amu said as her eyes scanned quickly across the page, her fingers having stopped flying across the keyboard. She typed a few commands in and the download box appeared. She sat back in her chair, relaxing as the download quickly finished and the worm planted itself in Easter's system.

"I'm done." She announced, picking up the fork and starting to eat her temporarily forgotten cake. "The download is complete and the worm is being planted." She told Nikaidou as quietly as she could without alerting the people around her to the fact.

"Good." Nikaidou replied. "You're good at learning—Oh, Amu, your brother is here to find you."

"Tell him that I should be there in a few moments. I'll send the files to you and Yukari, ok?" Amu spoke into the phone as she started on her coffee and turned back to the computer, opening the file that she had hacked the system for.

"Alright. My good news?" Nikaidou demanded again.

"Yukari says that the wedding is in two months time." Amu relayed. She finished reading the contents of the file. "Nikaidou, red alarm."

Nikaidou was silent for a moment before he asked, "That bad?"

"Yeah. Worse." Amu replied. "I'm being targeted. Ikuto will be coming to 'assassinate' me any moment now."

"Be careful."

"I will. Bye." Amu typed a few commands into her phone and dumped it into the dustbin right beside her. She knew that she was being watched and that her phone would be retrieved later. Gozen would want to know what she was up to.

Amu quickly sent the files to Nikaidou and Yukari before setting a bug in her system and letting it eat away at her files quickly. Then she left the laptop on the café table and hurrying away quickly. She glanced back at the table once she rounded a corner and noticed that a man in a white lab coat was retrieving her laptop.

Amu smiled grimly. The game was on.

**IKUTOIKUTOIKUTOIKUTO**

Ikuto felt conflicted. The Gozen wanted him to kill Hinamori Amu. He would listen to his orders, but Ikuto was also surprised to learn that he actually liked the girl. He didn't want to kill her. So, to kill her or not? Ikuto did not know.

Why did she have to get herself into trouble? Ikuto silently bemoaned. Now he would have to kill a girl that he actually liked.

"Ikuto, the girl is leaving the café. Once she heads into an empty lane or anything like that, you can kill her." The scientist told him, getting ready to leave the van.

"Where are you going?" Ikuto asked.

"To get her phone and laptop. Gozen wants us to deliver every personal item she has on her body." The scientist replied.

Ikuto nodded and slid out of the van, silently melting into the shadows as he stalked his prey. "Ikuto," Yoru whined silently. "I don't like this."

"Me neither." Ikuto replied softly. "But if we don't do this, Utau will be harmed. And we wouldn't be able to find Father."

Yoru moaned, as if in pain. "Hurry up with it." The cat Chara covered his ears and retreated into his egg. Ikuto felt rather lonely without the presence of his Chara with him.

"Ikuto?"

Ikuto snapped out of his daze, realizing that Amu had caught sight of him. Ikuto cursed under his breath as Amu suddenly turned and ran away. He did not know how much she knew about her situation, but clearly she had known enough. He ran lightly after her, using the rooftops instead of running behind her.

What he had not been expecting was for Amu to Character Change and gaining the ability to travel longer distances.

Ikuto cursed again. "Yoru, Character Change!" He called to the egg. A pair of cat ears and a cat tail appeared on him and Ikuto ran quickly to keep up with his moving target.

Amu quickly used the crane of a construction site to make her way up to the top of a building, Ikuto following closely behind her. Ikuto could smell her fear and panic… and something else…

She stopped on the top of the building and turned around to face Ikuto. Ikuto stopped too, pulling out one of the knives he used for assassination.

"Why, Ikuto?" Amu seemed desperate and eager to know the reason behind this. "Why would you follow Gozen's orders to assassinate me?"

"I'm sorry." Ikuto apologized.

"Don't worry." Amu suddenly smiled. "I'm sorry too."

Then she took a step backwards and fell over the side of the building. Ikuto stared, shell-shocked for a moment before he rushed over. But he never saw her falling body and her body was never recovered. But Ikuto deemed her dead. After all, no one could survive falling from such heights… Could they?


	10. Chapter 9

Akirina: 2 chappies in one day! :) I hope this is as good as the previous one! [responding to Dhampyric-Insomniac's comment! :)] Enjoy!

Chapter 9

"Amu-chan?" Ran whispered quietly, floating after the pink-haired girl. "What are we going to do now?"

"Amu pursed her lips, thinking of the possible ways she could go around with her 'death'. It was thanks to her Shugo Charas that she had managed to escape from that plummeting death. Miki had designed a doppelganger of sorts and made it topple over the side just as she wove a disguise over Amu, effectively hiding Amu from view. Then Ran had Character Change-d with Amu and they made their way off quickly.

"I'm worried about Hikaru and Ami. They need to be kept safe and I don't think the Guardians will be able to do a good job of that." Amu said. "Nikaidou wouldn't do… I think there's only the Headmaster left. He should be pretty reliable…"

"The Headmaster?"

"Don't tell me you forgot who he is, Sue! He's Tsukasa, Tadase's uncle." Amu said in exasperation. "Don't you remember that he forced me to be a Guardian?"

"It doesn't seem forced, now." Dia murmured quietly, trailing after Amu as she Character Change-d with Ran and started to the school in great leaps and bounds.

"Shouldn't you be more discreet, Amu-chan?" Sue asked in concern, glancing behind them occasionally. "After all, Ikuto did try to kill you…"

"They wouldn't be looking for me now, Sue. Don't worry," Amu reassured her. "Ikuto's reported my death already, so they wouldn't come after me."

"What are you going to do about Yukari and Nikaidou? They'll hear of this, you know." Miki said.

"I'll probably have to get to them first." Amu answered. "And hope that they don't do anything foolish in the meantime."

**TSUKASATSUKASATSUKASA**

Tsukasa wandered down to the planetarium, knowing that he would be meeting the Joker. The stars had predicted as much and he had to give her a warning from the stars, anyway.

Tsukasa stood in the planetarium, pondering at what the future would bring. He wondered whether Amu would find out about her family's company before the designated time… The joker card was a hard card to predict and in Tsukasa's book, jokers were unpredictable—the Wild card.

The door opened softly and someone came in. Tsukasa turned to face the person he had been waiting for, Hinamori Amu.

**AMUAMUAMUAMUAMU**

"Tsukasa?" Amu asked, slightly confused. It wasn't the fact that he was here that confused her—she was rather lucky that he was here, in fact, or she wouldn't be able to find him. (Tsukasa had a habit of hiding away whenever one needed him—and he hid really well) But it was the fact that he seemed to be _waiting _for her that made her pause.

"Ah, Hinamori-san." Tsukasa tore his eyes away from the planetarium's sky. "You're here."

"Were you waiting for me?" Amu asked.

"Well, the stars told me that you were coming and that you wanted my help. I know why you've come." Tsukasa replied.

"Really?" Amu asked suspiciously and incredulously. "What did they say?"

"They say that you're here to ask me to help you look after your brother and sister." Tsukasa told her. "And now, they want to give you a warning."

"A warning?"

"Yes. You are in potential danger, Hinamori-san. That is why they ask you to look out for the Embryo." Tsukasa said. "The Embryo is the answer to this mess."

"The Embryo? The egg that can grant wishes? The one that you wrote of in your book? Isn't that story to be finished by all of us?" Amu asked.

Tsukasa's gaze sharpened. "How did you know the ending?"

"Um," Amu muttered, glancing away in embarrassment. "…Hikaru told me."

"Hm… Hikaru, is it." Tsukasa looked rather contemplative. "I suppose he _would _know, since I based the story on him…"

"You based the story on Hikaru?" Amu asked in surprise, her voice raising by several octaves.

Tsukasa blinked. "Why, of course. He _is _my nephew, of sorts."

"But… how can that be?" Amu asked, "If he were your nephew, why didn't you take him in from the orphanage?"

"I am not his immediate kin; I did not have the rights to take him in." Tsukasa answered her, "It's the same with Ikuto."

"Ikuto?"

"He never told you how he joined Easter, did he?" Tsukasa asked. At Amu's shake, he continued, "Ikuto didn't want to serve his step-brother. Not at first. However, they threatened him with Utau and Tadase, his childhood friends and Ikuto had no choice. Tadase didn't support him and Ikuto never told him the reason why he had to join Easter. That was when I decided to take Ikuto away. We went all over the country, going to carnivals and watching shows. Ikuto wanted to go to this particular carnival in Tokyo. But that was where he was caught by Easter. And that was the day that his egg hatched and Yoru was born."

"Wait, his stepbrother is the Gozen of Easter? Does Ikuto know that?" Amu interrupted.

"No. No one knows that the Gozen is Ikuto's stepbrother. Not even Ikuto knows. The only ones who know are Ikuto's stepfather and me." Tsukasa replied.

"Why didn't you tell us earlier?" Amu asked, frustrated. "If you did, I would have been able to take him down quickly!"

"You didn't ask." Tsukasa replied blandly. "And what's done is done." He added when Amu glared at him.

"Fine." Amu huffed. "So what is his stepbrother's name?"

"Tacoma." Tsukasa told her, smiling. "His name is Irizawa Tacoma."

**TACOMATACOMATACOMATACOMA**

"I don't trust Ikuto, father." Tacoma spoke into his phone as he toyed with his spaghetti. "He did not seem to sit well with the assassination. And I have reports that he has met with the girl several times and bought a white violin for her."

"I see. What would you like me to do?" his father said.

Tacoma picked up his glass of red wine and took a sip, savoring its rich flavor before he replied. "Send Tsukiyomi Utau in to check for Hinamori Amu. Threaten Tsukiyomi's little sister that if she should fail or deceive us, Ikuto will be harmed. And her mother. She will be our little pet from then on."

"Excellent idea, Gozen. I will tell Yukari now."

"No." Tacoma stopped his father. "Change Utau's manager. I want Marion to be her manager now."

"Marion? Well, if you say so, Gozen."

"To make things easier for Utau, transfer her to Seiyo Academy. I'm sure she'll be taking up the empty space of the Joker. While Hinamori Amu is gone." Tacoma ordered. "And tell her I want a report on her first day of school."

"Yes, Gozen." Tacoma cut the conversation. He stared into the darkness of his room, mind working out the plan that he had painstakingly constructed since two years ago. Then he smiled darkly.

**IKUTOIKUTOIKUTOIKUTOIKUTO**

"Ikuto, you have a mission to do." One of the scientists called after Ikuto. "The specifics are with Sanjou-san!"

Ikuto gave no signs that he had heard the scientist and she went back to her work with a huff. Really! She thought. At least he could have shown some sign that he had _heard _what she had said!

To tell the truth, Ikuto was barely listening to her. His thoughts were still fixed on his most recent assignment and the image of the girl falling over the edge of the building. It was as if whenever he closed his eyes, he would see her light brown eyes… staring accusingly at him. Hear her voice… 'Why did you do it?'

Ikuto shuddered.

"Ikuto…" Yoru sounded weak today, Ikuto noted absent-mindedly. It was as if his Chara was tired, but Shugo Charas were never tired.

"Ikuto, Yukari's office is the other way." Yoru told Ikuto. Ikuto stopped in his tracks, his mind blanking out for a moment before he sighed and turned around, resuming walking once again. This time he was headed towards Yukari's office.

**YUKARIYUKARIYUKARIYUKARI**

Yukari glared at the pile of work on her table, wishing she could set fire to all of them at once. She was not in a good mood. This was Utau's crucial year to be accepted by the music industry and Yukari already had plans for Utau debut. How could Gozen pull her out and put Marion in her place?

He _did _know that Marion was a sucker at these kinds of jobs, didn't he? Marion had ADHD and he was a professional assassin; how could a man like that manage the duties of being a young star's manager? He would ruin Utau's debut!

It might be a good thing that Marion was easy to manipulate, Yukari grudgingly admitted. Or else she would never have been able to ensure a sliver of success for Utau's debut.

"I heard you have the details for my new mission, Sanjou-san." Yukari recognized Ikuto's voice. She turned around to face him.

"Hello, Ikuto. Yes, I have the file on that. It should be somewhere among that stack." Yukari waved her hand at the pile of work on her table. "I think it should be at the bottom of the stack if it arrived this morning."

"Oh. I can wait, I suppose." Ikuto collapsed into a nearby chair and closed his eyes.

Yukari sighed and went back to working on her paperwork.

It was late afternoon before she managed to get to the bottom of the stack and find Ikuto's file. By then, Ikuto was already asleep in the chair that he had chosen. Yukari sneaked a look at him before she opened the file quietly, curious to what mission had left him so… traumatized. She had not missed the dark shadows in his eyes, the look of fear on his face when he came into her office.

Her heart skipped a beat when she read a name in his file and she glanced over to him, hardly daring to believe what she had read.

**IKUTOIKUTOIKUTOIKUTO**

"Ikuto."

Ikuto mumbled and tried to turn over to face away from that annoying voice. He was having the best rest he had ever had since he had entered Easter.

"Ikuto. Wake up."

Ikuto sighed and pushed the hand that was shaking him away. Why couldn't everyone just leave him alone? He was tired and he didn't want to face the world…

"Ikuto, there's a chance that Amu might be alive."

Ikuto's eyes snapped open. Amu? Hadn't he caused her death? How would she be alive? Ikuto sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"I see that got you up." Ikuto blinked at Yukari in confusion before he remembered that he had unwittingly fallen asleep in her office.

"What do you mean, there is a chance that Amu might be alive?" Ikuto demanded. "She's dead. I saw her plummet off the building."

"That's true." Yukari agreed, and handed his mission folder to him. "But they never recovered her body. And there is no sign of blood on the ground that she supposedly landed on."

Ikuto frowned, taking the folder from her, scanning through the papers. "Are you sure…?" he asked rather doubtfully.

"Of course I'm sure!" Yukari replied haughtily. "Don't you know that Amu is a very cunning person?" Then she turned serious. "Of course, if you decide not to let the Gozen know that she is still alive, you must lay low for a period of time."

"I understand the risks." Ikuto replied lowly, preparing to leave the room, feeling significantly better with the news that Amu might be still alive. "Thanks for the help."

"You're welcome."

"Where is Hinamori-san?" Tadase asked once everyone was gathered in the Royal Garden for their usual meeting. The pink-haired girl had not shown up for the meeting, which was uncustomary of her.

"I haven't seen her at all since yesterday." Rima fretted. "And even then, she said she was going to see Nikaidou. But I haven't heard from her since then."

"What could have happened?" Kuukai wondered out loud.

"Ah, I see that you're all here." Tsukasa entered the Royal Garden, much to the surprise of the Guardians.

"Tsukasa-san?" Tadase stood up from the table, noticing that something was wrong. His uncle would never come to the Royal Garden unless something was wrong.

"If you're worrying about Hinamori-san, I'm afraid that you wouldn't find her." Tsukasa told them with a somber expression. "I've just received some news that she is dead. Easter killed her."

"What?" the Guardians shouted in unison before they started shooting questions at Tsukasa.

"Everyone, quiet down!" Tadase yelled over their voices, finally gaining the others' attention. Then he turned to Tsukasa.

"Please explain, dear uncle."

Ikuto silently sneaked into Seiyo Academy. He had deemed this as one of the potential places that Amu would go to if she wanted to go under. And he hoped that it would yield some results. Yukari had texted him some of the other potential places, but he had not discovered anything there so far.

Seiyo Academy was his last option.

"Ikuto, I think they're here." Yoru floated towards him. "I heard their voices."

"Where?" Ikuto demanded.

"The planetarium."

Ikuto's mood brightened considerably and he sped towards the planetarium eagerly. Having sneaked around the Academy grounds before, Ikuto knew the place like the back of his hand. Ikuto reached the planetarium, catching the sound of voices from within the building itself and he slammed open the doors.

And there, in the light spilling in behind him, was Hinamori Amu and her four Shugo Charas.

"You're not dead." Ikuto breathed, feeling slightly more relieved that Amu was alive.

Amu sighed in exasperation. "You don't give up, do you?"

Ikuto walked towards her, confidence in his steps. "I want the truth."

Amu smiled wryly at him. "And I owe you that." She replied. "Come, let's go to somewhere more private where we can discuss this."


	11. Chapter 10

Akirina: Sorry, this chapter may be shorter than the rest...

Chapter 10

Tacoma swiveled in his seat, tapping his fingers together as he went over his plans for Easter again. Something wasn't right, he could just feel it. Tacoma fidgeted nervously. Somehow, there was a weakness in his plans or his current situation that could be taken advantage of. But he didn't know what is was!

Hadn't he sent Ikuto after Hinamori Amu? And Utau over the siblings? What else could be wrong? He knew that Ikuto was not to be trusted, but he wouldn't disobey orders unless he wanted his sister to be harmed… Besides, hadn't Ikuto reported that Hinamori Amu was dead?

So what was wrong…?

**UTAUUTAUUTAUUTAUUTAU**

Utau groaned to herself as she stepped out of her new manager's office. How could one be so dense and idiotic? Marion was fit for nothing else but the role of an assassin, Utau secretly thought. She couldn't believe that Gozen actually had Marion fill in the role of her manager when he removed Yukari. Sure, Utau knew that Gozen didn't trust Yukari…

And then Utau stopped, realizing what Gozen was doing in an instant.

He was placing Marion with her because he planned to kill her.

**RIMARIMARIMARIMARIMARIMA**

"There's still no sign of her?" Rima asked Nagihiko.

"No. It's as if she disappeared from the face of the Earth." Nagihiko replied. "And her guardians have gone missing too."

"So it's only her siblings left, huh…" Rima turned her speculative gaze away from the Nagihiko. "I wonder… Amu would not die so easily. She has Ran to help her if she gets into trouble. After all, she must have some plan to take down Easter now that Gozen has tried to take her off…"

"She would do that?" Nagihiko asked, not being so familiar with Amu herself. He had always thought that Amu had held some kind of resentment towards the Guardians for forcing her to be Joker.

"Well, yes." Rima replied. "Amu likes all of the Guardians, surprisingly. I can see that much when she interacts with all of you. And from the latest events, I have gathered that she is starting to feel unsatisfied with Easter… It probably wouldn't be long before she strikes at Easter. Amu always gets what she wants, after all."

"Oh." Nagihiko said, not knowing what else to say. "If you say so."

**UTAUUTAUUTAUUTAUUTAU**

Utau stepped out of the grand limousine, wincing inwardly as her fans screamed and shouted confessions of their love to her. Sometimes, she really wished that she could just be a normal school girl.

"Ah, Hoshina Utau, isn't it?" Utau looked up to see who had addressed her so casually. It was a boy wearing the garb of a Guardian. He had light brown hair and green eyes—a lovely combination of colours, if Utau might say so herself. A small crease formed between her brows. Usually, boys would fall all over her once they met her, in awe of her beauty. So why would this one act differently?

"Yes, I'm Hoshina Utau." Utau replied sharply. "And you are?"

The boy flashed a smile at her. "I'm Kuukai. The full name is Souma Kuukai."

"Huh. One of the Guardians, I see." Utau scoffed. "Well? What are you doing here?"

Kuukai grinned. "I am to be your guide to help you acquaint with your new school. And you are in my class, so even better."

Utau scoffed again, but followed him when Kuukai led her into the school. "By the way, I read that you like eating ramen?" Kuukai asked curiously.

Utau eyed him suspiciously. "What about that?" she asked in return.

Kuukai broke out into a wide grin. "I challenge you to a ramen eating competition."

Utau paused. It was tempting… Wait! Her mind screamed. What was she thinking? Spending even one moment with the enemy would mean that she was fraternizing… And she didn't want to be like Amu, even though she loved her friend dearly.

"Too cowardly to take up a challenge?" Kuukai teased lightly, seeing Utau pause. Then he laughed, "Of course, Easter has resorted to many cowardly methods, so it wouldn't be unnatural…"

"Shut up!" Utau snapped, her temper getting better than her. "Fine! I'll take you up on it. The venue will be decided later. The one who finishes the most number of bowls wins."

"Great! And if I win, you'll break away from Easter." Kuukai said.

Utau stopped, cursing at herself and surprised at Kuukai's demand. Quit Easter? She could never do that! Her brother… Ikuto needed her… She couldn't leave him in Easter and certainly not for a boy who she had a crush on!

Then Utau halted, horrified at what she had thought. A crush? That was absurd… How could she had a crush on a person she had just met? That… That was ridiculous! And the only one that she loved was Ikuto! No one would ever replace Ikuto because he was the only one that she was meant for!

She turned her attention to Kuukai, tracing her eyes over his handsome features… But she would have a crush on Kuukai if she didn't love Ikuto… Utau snapped herself out of her thoughts, banishing them into a far corner of her mind, shaking her head. She didn't need this and she most certainly did not have a crush on the boy!

"Then if I win, you're to leave me alone." Utau retorted, before turning on her heel and stalking away from him.

She nearly missed the other's chuckle. Utau gritted her teeth.

Damn.

**IKUTOIKUTOIKUTOIKUTOIKUTO**

Ikuto knocked softly on the window, glancing around to make sure no one was looking. "Yukari!" he called softly.

There was a mumble and the window was thrown open, just barely managing to clip Ikuto on the shoulder. Ikuto hissed in pain and clung on to the branch of the tree. He was quite fortunate that the tree had a thick canopy, blocking anyone from spotting him.

"What is it?" Yukari asked softly as she yawned, not wanting anyone to overhear their conversation.

"I've found Amu." Ikuto whispered.

Yukari rubbed her eyes as she started to retrieve her dried comforter from the pole she had hung outside her window. "Are you going under?" she asked, lips not moving.

"Yes." Ikuto whispered back. "I've hidden the folder in your comforter."

And then, he was gone, leaving Yukari with the information that Amu had given him.

Three days later…

**KUUKAIKUUKAIKUUKAIKUUKAI**

Kuukai grinned in satisfaction as he and Utau strode away from the ramen restaurant. They had scheduled for the challenge to take place in the ramen restaurant not far from Seiyo Academy. It was a very good restaurant—in Kuukai's opinion. Utau had been less lenient about the criticism she gave, but to his surprise, the owner of the restaurant took it in good spirits and even thanked Utau for her help!

And in the end, Kuukai had won the challenge.

Utau wasn't one to go back on her word, Kuukai knew. He had seen the expression of resignation on her face after she realized that she had lost. Kuukai had to give it to her, though. The girl, even though an enemy, was the only one who caught his eye since his other crush.

"I trust you to keep to your word?" Kuukai asked, sounding slightly amused. Utau shot him a look of hatred.

"Yes." She replied in a short, clipped tone. "And perhaps you'll tell me what to do when I back out from Easter? What am I going to do about my career? Who will support me?"

Kuukai stopped. He had never really thought about how this would affect Utau's career. All he had thought was to get one of their enemies out of their way… He had no idea that this would affect Utau's career as a singer too.

"Um…" Kuukai faltered, caught by surprise.

"You don't know what is going to happen, do you?" Utau rolled her eyes in anger. "Great."

Kuukai winced at her sarcasm. "You don't have to put it that way… I mean, couldn't you find another job with some other company?"

Utau stared at Kuukai incredulously and the boy knew that he had said something wrong. "You can't be serious?"

"Uh, well…"

"What on earth are you doing, Kuukai?" an amused voice spoke from behind them. "If it is a ploy to get Utau out of Easter, I must say I'm surprised."

The two turned to the person who interrupted their conversation and gaped at who was standing behind them.

"Amu…?"


	12. Chapter 11

Akirina: I'm sorry that each chapter seems to be shorter than the previous one...

Chapter 11

"Amu!" Utau gasped, stepping back in surprise. "What…?"

"Tadase's uncle said you were dead!" Kuukai said in alarm, making sure to keep his voice down. "How can this be?"

Amu rolled her eyes. "Well, I'm still alive, contrary to your beliefs." She replied. "Besides, what was that I heard; you trying to get Utau to leave Easter?"

Kuukai snorted, "How much did you hear?" he asked.

Amu grinned. "Enough to know that you have a crush on her." She paused at the shocked expressions on Kuukai's and Utau's faces. "And that she has a crush on you too."

"I- I do not!" Utau protested feebly. "What are you saying, Amu!"

Amu chuckled. "We've been friends for a long time, Utau." She said. "I can read you well enough to know that you have a crush on him."

"Fine, you win." Kuukai sighed in defeat, bowing his head. Utau gaped at him while Amu smiled victoriously.

"Now, that wasn't too bad, was it?"She asked. "Besides, you're really going to quite Easter?"

Utau sighed too in defeat. "Yes. I promised, after all." She replied. "I'll probably have to go under for some time, though."

"Hm…" Amu mused. "I'll have to tell Ikuto that his sister is joining him, it seems."

"Ikuto?" Utau perked up. "You've seen him? When?"

"Three days ago. More or less." Amu replied, with an amused smile on her face. "And he wants me to tell you to leave Easter as soon as you can. And he advises you not to linger once you've handed in the resignation letter."

"Alright." Utau replied, in a rather depressed manner that Kuukai disliked. He tried to redirect his attention to something else.

"So, Amu-san, how did you manage to convince everyone that you were dead?"

**TACOMATACOMATACOMATACOMA**

Marion knelt in front of the screened Gozen, shaking slightly. He had failed. Failed at killing Hoshina Utau; failed at stopping her when she took off from Easter. She knew too much. She had to be killed if she shown signs of leaving Easter. Marion had missed the signs.

And now he was going to pay for his mistake.

Tacoma sneered at the man from where he was sitting. No matter how good Marion was at assassination, he would never match the powers of guns and other 'inventions' that could get rid of him.

"Marion," Tacoma drawled, "Do you know why you are here?"

"Y-yes, Gozen…"

"Tell me." Tacoma said silkily. "Tell me why do you think that you are here."

Marion hesitated. Tacoma smiled darkly, motioning to the guard standing beside Marion. The guard pushed a spike into Marion's left foot and Tacoma delighted in the screams of the assassin before he motioned again. The guard slapped Marion until the man's screams became whimpers.

"Tell me, Marion."

"I…I failed to kill Hoshina Utau." The man stuttered. "I failed to notice that she had been getting on with the Guardians and that they were 'enticing' her."

"Very good." Tacoma purred. "And what do you think your punishment should be?"

"Please! Please, Gozen! I'll… I'll make it up to you! I'll do anything! I'll kill her!" Marion screamed, nearly frantic, knowing what was going to happen to him. "Have mercy!"

Tacoma chuckled darkly. "You know I do not have mercy, Marion." He said, a cruel smile twisting his lips. "Take him to the torture rooms and tell Al to look after him until I come."

The guard bowed and dragged Marion out of the room, ignoring the assassin's pained screams as the spike in his foot was jostled with each movement.

**HIKARUHIKARUHIKUARHIKARU**

"I still don't understand why we have to stay with you." Hikaru huffed as he helped Ami with a puzzle. "Amu's still alive, despite what you say, anyway."

"How can you tell?" Tsukasa asked curiously.

"Well…" Hikaru trailed off a little hesitantly. "It was like someone was whispering in my ear…"

"Someone whispering in your ear…?" Tsukasa murmured, "Hikaru, tell me: has your egg been born yet?"

"No." Hikaru shook his head, frowning. "Why do you ask?"

"Because," Tsukasa stopped. "Because I think your egg has been born."

"What?"

**AMUAMUAMUAMU**

Amu looked at the lock that she had lifted from Ikuto. The Dumpty Key. The day she had taken the Dumpty Key, she had tried to open the Humpty Lock with it. Unfortunately, it hadn't worked and the Lock and Key only glowed faintly before it faded into a dull yellow shade.

"Amu?"

Amu blinked and poked her head out of the secret guest room Nikaidou had let her stay in. "Yeah?"

"I think I found something on what Gozen is planning to do." Nikaidou called to her from his bedroom, his voice strained.

"You managed to hack into his account?" Amu asked as she quickly hurried into Nikaidou's room.

"No. But I got the next best thing. The assassin, Marion has a record of his expenses and records on the Gozen himself. It is encrypted, though. Most likely entrusted to Marion for safe keeping." Nikaidou replied. "I've sent Yukari to break into his house."

"Yukari? But isn't that dangerous? She could get caught!" Amu cried worriedly, her eyes scanning through the window on Nikaidou's computer.

"She has enough experience. And Ikuto is going with her." Nikaidou reassured Amu. "They'll be back soon."

As soon as Nikaidou uttered those words, the doorbell rang and Nikaidou checked the surveillance camera before he announced, "They're here."

Amu ran to the door and opened it, allowing the two into the house before she shut the door and locked it. Yukari looked somewhat exhausted and strands of red hair escaped her plait.

"How was it?" Amu asked, "Did you manage to find the records?"

"Yes." Yukari replied and Ikuto tossed a file towards her. "They're all inside."

**IKUTOIKUTOIKUTOIKUTOIKUTO**

Amu hurried to the living room without waiting and deposited everything in the bag onto the coffee table and sifted through the contents, her eyes scanning through each document eagerly. Ikuto settled himself next to her and watched her through half-lidded eyes as he started to doze off. Nikaidou had fixed a cup of coffee and he was going through his laptop for some other information on Gozen while Yukari went to clean herself up.

Ikuto idly traced Amu's features; her pink hair and light brown eyes and the small flush on her face that indicated her excitement. Without realizing it, Ikuto realized that he had fallen in love with Hinamori Amu.

A sharp intake of breath startled Ikuto into bolting upright from where he was seating. He turned to Amu, who had an expression of shock and horror on her face.

"What's wrong, Amu?" Ikuto asked worriedly.

"I…I can't believe it." Amu handed the piece of paper to Ikuto with a shaking hand.

Ikuto took it from her and then proceeded to stare at the picture in her hand. Yukari emerged from the bathroom then.

"What did you find out?" she asked and Nikaidou raised his head from the laptop, interested.

"They… they planned to assassinate Ikuto's father." Amu stammered. "Tsukiyomi Aruto."

"Aruto?" Yukari hurried over. "I thought he left Japan because of some family feud?"

"No." Ikuto handed her the paper. "Gozen planned to kill him."

"Tsukiyomi Aruto…" Amu wavered, wondering whether she should tell Ikuto the truth. "I met him before."

"What?"

"When?"


	13. Chapter 12

Akirina: Enjoy!

Chapter 12

_Four-year-old Hinamori Amu stared at the families enjoying themselves in the park. Sometimes she wished that she could join them… But she wasn't part of them. No, Amu's parents were busy and important people—too busy to bother with her. Too busy to play with her._

_And so Amu was given liberty to wander around. Bored out of her mind, Amu went to the park where she could stay until her parents came home. There was no one to play with her and whatever friends Amu tried to make was threatened off by Easter and her parents._

_Amu was lonely. And she hated her parents for making her feel alone._

"_Hello," Amu looked up to see a man with blue hair and eyes smiling down at her. She blinked in surprise. No one ever approached her and talked to her like he was doing now…_

"_Where are your parents?" He asked._

_Amu paused, wondering if it was alright to tell this man… He settled down on the pavement next to her after a moment, startling Amu with the movement. He smiled and looked at her kindly, as if he were serious that he would listen to her—a child!—speak._

_Amu didn't know why, but she started to pour out the whole story to this man—her whole life story. At the end, the man was silent for a moment before he said, "Well, if you're bored, I suppose I wouldn't mind teaching you how to play the violin…"_

"_The violin?" Amu asked in amazement. "You can play it?"_

"_Well," The man said, looking amused, "I do."_

"_Cool!" Amu gushed, then stopped, looking at the man carefully. "I'm Hinamori Amu. What's your name?"_

"_Tsukiyomi Aruto."_

**AMUAMUAMU**

And that was how Amu had met Tsukiyomi Aruto. And one month later, she met Tsukiyomi Utau—as she was known back then—and they became good friends. Aruto was the one who taught her how to play the violin and she would owe him for that. He had brightened up her life and given her something to do: play. He had also brought friends to her: Utau and Tacoma. Although she was growing apart from Tacoma, Utau had always been a good friend.

But knowing now that he had been targeted by the Gozen changed everything. Why would Gozen target Aruto? If Aruto had known that Gozen was targeting him, why approach Amu?

"Why?" Amu murmured to herself.

"What?" Amu broke free from her thoughts. She offered a weak smile to Ikuto, before she relayed what she had been thinking to the small group.

"You met Father before?" Ikuto frowned slightly. "Funny, I've never heard Utau or Father talk about you…"

"I don't know why they didn't say anything." Amu shrugged. "You could ask Utau."

"I can't. She's already gone into hiding. And Utau's very good at hiding." Ikuto shook his head.

Amu thought for a while before she said, "I bet she went to find Rima. After all, I'm 'dead'."

"They've already sent men after her, anyway. So you wouldn't find her that easily. Besides, if we hunt for her right now, we're wasting our time." Nikaidou agreed. "We should take this opportunity to go after Gozen."

"Right," Amu said promptly. "Well, according to what we know, Aruto might be still alive and he might know something about the Hinamori family, so…"

**TACOMATACOMATACOMA**

"You're certain?" Tacoma asked again, leaning back in his chair.

"Yes, Gozen."

"Dismissed. Send Seth in here."

The door closed behind the man and Tacoma steepled his fingers, coldly regarding the huge painting opposite him.

"I see that I have underestimated you, Hinamori Amu. The Hinamori family are a bunch of sneaky bastards, after all." He chuckled maliciously. "But there are only two of you left… I wonder who will go first?"

**UTAUUTAUUTAU**

"Are you sure about this?" Utau asked Kuukai as she sat on his bed gingerly. "I can stay here until the threat is gone?"

"Yeah," Kuukai replied. "My brothers are setting up a bed for you in the guest room right now. So you'll be able to stay here."

"And what about my clothes?" Utau asked.

Kuukai paused before laughing. "Well, we forgot about that completely, didn't we?"

Utau let her mouth curl into a wry smile. Indeed, they had been busy escaping Easter to notice…

"_They're there! Fire!"_

_Kuukai swore as bullets ricocheted off the walls near them. "Damn! Daichi, Character Change!"_

"_Roger!"_

_Kuukai grabbed Utau and with the help of his Shugo Chara, zipped out of the shop they had entered before the men came after them. Iru and Eru, Utau's Shugo Charas kept up with them, Iru sobbing with fear and Eru shouting insults at their pursuers._

"_Eru!"_

"_Got it!"_

_A guitar appeared in Utau's hands and she strummed it quickly. To Kuukai's surprise, the sound waves from the guitar destroyed the pathway the men were travelling on and it delayed them for a moment. With that done, she Character Changed with Iru and sang a lullaby. Many of their pursuers sank to the ground, sleepy. Eventually, there were only a few that were still awake and they had given up on chasing Kuukai, who was simply too fast for them._

Utau sighed as she remembered that. This would mean that she would have to remain hidden… And she could not tell Amu about her family secret. The Hinamoris were an old family and Utau had been told about the secret that they had when she met Amu. Unfortunately, the circumstances were never right for Utau to tell Amu about it and she was always afraid that they would be overheard.

However, there was no more time for that now. She needed to tell Amu now and warn her of what would be happening…

Utau sighed again and then turned to Kuukai, the only person who knew enough to help her.

**AMUAMUAMUAMU**

They were halfway through the process of planning when the phone suddenly rang. Amu exchanged glances with her friends before she picked it up.

"Hello, is this Amu-san?" Amu recognized that voice.

"Tsukasa-san?" Amu asked cautiously.

"I'm sorry, Amu-san." Amu stiffened, awaiting the bad news…

"Hikaru and Ami have been taken."

Time seemed to stop.

**HIKARUHIKARUHIKARU**

Hikaru frowned. "But my egg can't have been born. I didn't see it." He protested.

"That's true." Tsukasa conceded. "But on that day that your egg was born, Amu attempted to unlock the Humpty Lock prematurely."

"Humpty Lock?"

"The Humpty Lock and the Dumpty Key are tools of power. They are the main reason why Shugo Charas exist. It was said that back then, when the Sun and Moon were young, there was an incidence where both of them met in the sky. And then at that moment, twin drops of the Sun and Moon fell to the Earth. They intertwined and when they hit the earth, they formed a Lock and Key. The stars were present when this happened and they blessed the Lock and Key with stardust. Later, when the Lock and Key were found, they were named Humpty Lock and Dumpty Key by the founder, Humpty Dumpty." Tsuakasa explained.

"Humpty Dumpty?" Hikaru murmured incredulously.

Tsukasa smiled. "Contrary to what is believed, Humpty Dumpty is actually a real person. When he found the Lock and Key, he spent many days obsessing over it. When he died, his upper body and lower body were found in North Pole and South Pole respectively, with the Humpty Lock and Dumpty Key with each body part. Hence, it was named that way."

"And what's so special about it?" Hikaru asked.

"It contains the powers of the Sun, Moon and Stars, Hikaru." Tsukasa replied, looking to the heavens. "It is powerful because of that."

"And I expect they were made for a reason?"

"Yes," Tsukasa nodded. "They ensure the continued existence of the Shugo Charas and the Way of the Stars."

"The Way of the Stars?"

"I can't tell you much about that." Tsukasa answered. "But I expect Amu has been there."

"Amu?"

"She is the destined bearer of the Humpty Lock." Tsukasa told him. "And Tsukiyomi Ikuto is the destined bearer of the Dumpty Key."

"Is that so…" Hikaru muttered. "I can't see the relevance, though."

"What I mean to say is that the day the Humpty Lock was unlocked, there was a large surge of power that your egg absorbed. Overcharged, your egg now has the power to grant wishes. Of course, the power is 'stolen' from the Humpty Lock and Dumpty Key. What you must do is find your egg and tell Amu to unlock the Humpty Lock again." Tsukasa said. "And you only have one chance."

"Hikaru!" Ami interrupted their conversation, running into the room. "The men you asked me to look out for are here!"

Hikaru and Tsukasa glanced to the door of the planetarium immediately. Ami made her way to Hikaru quickly, afraid by the men and their situation, which felt ominous.

"I'm afraid." Ami whispered as she sat in Hikaru's lap.

"Don't be." Hikaru murmured, pulling Ami into an embrace. "Onee-chan will come to save us."

Then, the door slammed open and the black men strode forward.

"Give us the children."


	14. Chapter 13

Akirina: I feel like I'm rushing through these chapters... Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 13

"We need to get to Hikaru and Ami!" Amu was frantic. "I can't leave them with Easter—they'll kill them!"

"And that's what they're expecting you to do!" Yukari snapped. "Sacrifice yourself!"

"What am I to do?" Amu retorted angrily. "If they die, it'll be my fault!"

"Calm down!" Nikaidou injected suddenly. "We need a plan, Amu. We can't just barge in and demand that they return Hikaru and Ami. There are guards there that would go up against you."

"There are no guards." Ikuto broke in quietly. "Gozen most likely has sent them all after Utau."

"And knowing Utau, most of them would be injured." Yukari nodded. "So there is a flaw in their security now. We can use this opportunity to break in and get them out."

"Well… do you have the current security plans, Nikaidou?"

**TADASETADASETADASE**

Tadase stood up once the Guardians were gathered. "I have some bad news." He announced to the group. "Hikaru and Ami have been taken by Easter."

"What?"

"How can that be?"

"What happened?"

"But Tsukasa-san—"

There was a barrage of responses from the surprised Guardians at Tadase's announcement. All of them wanted to know what happened and they wanted to go and rescue the two children immediately.

Eventually, Tadase had to slam his hand on the table to get their attention and silence.

"We're going to attack Easter." Tadase told them. "We're going in now."

There was a muffled cheer at this and to everyone's surprise, Rikka stood up. "I have an idea…"

**UTAUUTAUUTAUUTAU**

"Utau, Tsukasa just called." Kuukai entered the room with a grim face. "Amu's two younger siblings have just been taken by Easter."

"What?" Utau bolted upright instantly. She started towards the door. "What happened?"

"They threatened Tsukasa, it appears. And he said that the stars told him to let the children go." Kuukai replied. "Tadase is gathering the Guardians. We're going to meet at Easter."

"I'm going with you." Utau said. "I don't care whether Easter is after me. But I owe this to Amu."

Kuukai frowned. "You owe her?"

Utau flushed slightly. "I… I spied on her for Easter."

Kuukai gaped and Utau hurried to explain. "I didn't have any choice. It was either spy on Amu or my brother would get punished. And Amu knew that I was under Easter, so she knew not to trust me with too much information."

"She let a spy stay with her?" Kuukai said slowly, incredulous. "She let _you _stay with her even though you would betray her?"

Utau flinched at his accusatory tone. "She knew." Utau could only say.

"You better hope she does." Kuukai shut his mouth, looking angry. "She'd better explain herself!"

Utau gulped.

**AMUAMUAMUAMUAMUAMU**

Amu moved past the first patrol of guards, Ikuto at her side. Their Shugo Charas floated silently behind them, taking note of their surroundings and taking care not to trip any alarms.

"Ran, Character Change." Amu whispered. Small wings appeared on Amu's shoes and she sprang up into the air immediately, landing on the roof neatly with Ikuto behind her.

"This way." Ikuto murmured, pulling her to a trap door in the roof. "This leads to Gozen's chambers."

Amu followed warily. She kept an eye on her surroundings. Something didn't feel right. They had gotten in here easily… Almost too easily. She froze. With the manpower low, wouldn't the Gozen set up more traps?

"Ikuto, we need to get out of here. It's a trap!" She hissed to Ikuto.

Ikuto twitched his cat ears and pulled her into the cover of a large pipe. "Too late." He murmured in her ear.

Just as a crate sitting inconspicuously on the other side of the roof exploded. The pipe was large enough to keep Amu and Ikuto hidden, but Amu could hear the voices saying impossible, impossible… X-eggs.

It made Amu wonder just how many X-eggs the Gozen had collected… According to the documents, the Gozen was after the Embryo, a mythical egg that could grant wishes. Apparently, it appeared every now and then, the last sighting having been fifty years ago. It had been spotted, recently, at Seiyo Academy and Amu knew why that 'experiment' had taken place.

"There's no choice…" Ikuto muttered to her, "You go down the trapdoor and I'll keep the X-eggs off you."

"That's impossible!" Amu cried, "I can't let you face them on your own!"

Then, she realized the folly of her cry. She had said it loud enough to attract the attention of the X-eggs and now they were headed towards their hiding place. Ikuto cursed and pushed her towards the trapdoor.

"Go!" he shouted at her.

Amu was torn between staying with him and going after her siblings. But upon seeing the determined gleam in Ikuto's eyes, she quickly scrambled for the trapdoor. She quickly dragged it open and jumped into the small tunnel. She waited for her Shugo Charas to enter before she let the lid fall shut, her eyes lingering on Ikuto's figure as she shut the trapdoor.

**IKUTOIKUTOIKUTO**

Ikuto hissed in pain as an X-egg grazed him with its depressive power. He was slowing down; there were simply too many X-eggs for him to face. He couldn't handle them any longer…

He was knocked to the ground by one of the X-eggs. Ikuto closed his eyes and braced for the attack, but it never came. Opening his eyes and looking around in confusion, Ikuto saw that the X-eggs were headed away from him. He peered after them and felt his eyes widen in surprise when he saw where they were headed to.

A group of children stood at the entrance to Easter. One of them was a girl with red hair. The X-eggs were gathered around her, clamoring for her attention.

Interesting. The Guardians were here.

**TACOMATACOMATACOMA**

Tacoma scowled as the X-eggs abandoned their attack on Ikuto. "Traitors." He murmured to himself before he pressed a button on his intercom. "Proceed to step two."

"Yes, Gozen."

**KAIRIKAIRIKAIRIKAIRI**

Kairi pushed his spectacles further up his nose, studying the building in front of him. Musashi floated by his side, muttering something about this disturbing their practice sessions. Kairi couldn't disagree with him, but this was a nice break from practicing all the time.

"Kairi!" Musashi shouted in warning as Kairi's well-honed reflexes dodged a bolt of dark energy from an X-egg.

The Guardians stared at the X-eggs and Rikka in surprise, not expecting the attack. Rikka looked slightly panicky and worried. She attempted to converse with a few of the X-eggs, but they started to shudder and threw random bolts of dark energy around.

Rikka turned back towards them, running from the X-eggs. "I don't know what's happening, but they are under some sort of influence! I can't talk to them!"

Kairi Character Changed and pulled her out of the way of another X-egg. "It must be Easter." He surmised aloud. "They must have some weapon with them that influences the X-eggs like this."

"Hey guys!" The Guardians turned around to see Kuukai running towards them with a blonde girl behind him—Hoshina Utau, Kairi recognized.

"Iru, Character Transform!" Utau called to her Shugo Chara and there was a bright flash of pink light before everyone could see again. Utau launched off the ground, flying towards the X-eggs and started to cleanse them by singing.

"Kusu kusu, Character Transform."

The Guardians started as another Character Transformation took place amongst them. Rima, the new Queen appeared, dressed in a clown's outfit.

"W-What…?" Tadase stammered in surprise. "Mashiro-san, you could Character Transform?"

Rima nodded as she threw some bowling pins into the air to help Utau.

"Kairi, can you feel that?" Musashi murmured to Kairi. "That… ever-growing warm feeling… That powerful feeling…"

"Yes." Kairi replied softly, he could feel it, that warm feeling growing…

"Character Transform with me, Kairi. This may be the only chance we can get…" Musashi urged when the warmth became slightly searing.

"Character Transform!"

**TACOMATACOMATACOMA**

"Proceed with step three."

**IKUTOIKUTOIKUTO**

Ikuto watched in surprise as everyone Character Transformed with their characters and participated in the fight against the X-eggs.

"Ikuto~" Yoru whined. "I wanna Character Transform too…"

"Hush." Ikuto told him. "There's something wrong about this…"

Yoru pouted and whined, but Ikuto was fixed on the scene beneath. His eyes searched the place, wondering what was wrong…

The feeling of his hair standing up on the back of his neck made Ikuto wary. He turned and blinked. A white sphere was floating near him and it emanated power… Ikuto knew what this was, immediately.

The Embryo.

Ikuto took one step forward to grab the Embryo, but a net was thrown over the Embryo and he was knocked unconscious.


	15. Chapter 14

Akirina: 2 chapters left... Enjoy!

Chapter 14

The Guardians opened their eyes slowly… What had happened? The last thing any of them remembered was fighting the X-eggs… Then there was a great flush of energy that washed over them and they collapsed to the ground, unconscious…

"Ikuto!" Utau scrambled up and reached the other side of the cold, grey room. The Guardians swiveled to look and noticed that Tsukiyomi Ikuto was in the same cell with them.

"Traitorous cat." Tadase growled, standing up immediately.

"No!" Utau cried and Rima pulled on Tadase. "Don't, Tadase."

Ikuto chose to awake at that moment with a groan. He assessed the situation slowly before he said, "It was a trap."

"What happened? Aren't you with Amu?" Utau asked.

"Amu? She's dead! She was killed by him!" Tadase cried, not understanding.

"Amu's still alive." Kuukai interjected. "We met her earlier."

"What?" Tadase stared at Kuukai in alarm. "'We'?"

"Uh," Kuukai faltered. "Utau and I."

"What were you doing with her?" Kairi asked curiously.

Kuukai reddened slightly. "We were having a ramen eating challenge… Anyway, we met her after the competition. She told us how she faked her death."

"I met her too." Ikuto added quietly. "And I came here with her."

"Where is she?" Tadase demanded. "I don't see her with you!"

"Ikuto…" Utau looked at her brother in concern. "Don't tell me you sent her in…"

Ikuto grimaced. "Yes. It was a foolish decision, but it was the only option I thought we had at that time."

"Ikuto!" Utau exclaimed. "You might just have sent her into another trap!"

"Wait, what's going on? What do you mean Amu might trapped?" Yaya demanded.

Utau shot Ikuto an angry look. "Gozen must have been prepared for us, that's why we were caught this easily. If we were caught this easily, who knows what may happen to Amu?"

"So Amu will be captured…?" Yaya asked slowly.

Utau grinned rather suddenly at this point, surprising the others. "Well… Amu is well-known for getting out of situations that seem impossible to get out of."

Rima laughed lightly at that. "I noticed that, too."

"Whatever the case, I hope she gets to the Gozen quickly." Nagihiko added. "I wonder how long we'll have to stay here…"

At that point, the door to their room opened and the prisoners stared at the newcomer in surprise.

"Yukari? Nikaidou?"

**TACOMATACOMATACOMA**

Tacoma laughed giddily, feeling the exhilaration at 'winning' his enemies. The Guardians were caught and they would be killed with poison gas… or he could suck the oxygen from the room and let them suffocate… As for Hinamori Amu, she would be dead already. He had known about the trapdoor in the roof, so he had left a trap in the tunnel that she would enter… He would block all exits and drown her… She was probably already dead.

"Sir!" The walkie-talkie crackled. "The prisoners! They're—" It crackled again before it fell silent.

"What?" Tacoma said and picked up the walkie-talkie. He glanced at the security cameras and noted that the group patrolling the grounds of Easter were gone. "Group Gemma, can you hear me?"

There was silence.

Tacoma frowned, feeling worried. Something had gone wrong… What had gone wrong?

"Groups Theta and Delta, tighten security." Tacoma ordered, studying the screens intently. Where were the perpetrators?

"Sir! We've found the perpetrators!" The walkie-talkie crackled again. "It's… it's the sci—"

It fell silent again.

Tacoma grew increasingly worried and nervous. Group Theta and Delta had entered a blind spot where the cameras weren't positioned. "Group Theta? Delta?"

"Group Theta here, sir." A man responded. "We're coming to the front of the building… Good Lord! It's Group Delta!"

Then there was a yell before the signal was cut off again.

"Groups Alpha, Beta, evacuation." Tacoma snapped into another walkie-talkie and he proceeded to move from the room. But upon reaching the doors, they burst open and Tacoma quickly scrambled back, recognizing the figures standing in the doorway.

"Guardians." He hissed angrily.

"Hello, Gozen." Tacoma recognized the two Tsukiyomi siblings standing amongst them.

"Traitors." Tacoma spat, "I should have killed you immediately. Or let Marion have his way with you." The last comment was directed to Utau.

Ikuto glared at Tacoma. "You wouldn't dare." He muttered. "Where is Amu?"

Tacoma smirked. "Don't know where she is, do you?"

"Tell us where Amu is!" one of the Guardians stepped forward. Tacoma studied him and noted his resemblance to Tsukasa. This must be Tsukasa's nephew, then, Hotori Tadase.

"She's dead." Tacoma told them gleefully. "I drowned her in that passageway that Ikuto sent her into."

Ikuto and the Guardians stumbled back in shock. "That… that can't be…"

"Ignore him," Yukari swept into the room. "He's probably lying."

Tacoma could only stare at Yukari in shock and surprise. "Yukari?"

"Hello, Gozen." Yukari studied him and scoffed. "Huh, no one would have thought that a fifteen year old was the Gozen of Easter."

"What—What are you doing here? Guards, get in here!" Tacoma yelled.

"They're currently incapacitated." Yukari told him. "Now, tell us about what you've been up to. Amu wouldn't let us see the papers that Marion had from you."

Tacoma sneered at her in panic. "Bitch." He swore at her.

Yukari's face darkened momentarily. "Well, then you'd probably like to know that you are no longer the Gozen of Easter. There has been a consensus among the workers of Easter. We're firing you."

Tacoma gaped at her. "W-What?"

"You heard me." Yukari glanced away from him to the windows. "The police will be here to take you away any instant. You'll be arrested for kidnapping… Speaking of which, where are the children?"

"I have them." Everyone turned to look at the newest newcomer. Tsukasa stood in the doorway to the office with Hikaru and Ami.

"Uncle!" Tadase said, stepping towards him. "You told us that Amu was dead…"

"I'm sorry, Tadase. I lied." Tsukasa sighed. "But it was necessary. If you had known, more people would have been injured."

Tadase frowned and stepped back, pondering over his uncle's words. "But we could have helped." He muttered.

"Quite true. But things needed to move in this direction. Or else Tacoma would have gotten away with this." Tsukasa told him.

"Then where's Amu?" Rima interrupted. "Haven't you seen her?"

"No." Tsukasa shook his head. "I did get a message from her about where Hikaru and Ami were, though."

"That means she's still alive and somewhere in this building?" Rima asked hopefully.

"Hm," Tsukasa pondered the matter for a moment, "Assuming she doesn't get caught by Tacoma's guards, she should be pretty alright."

"Tacoma's guards?"

"People who are still loyal to Tacoma." Everyone swiveled to look at the new speaker. Somehow, in the midst of talking with Tsukasa, Amu had managed to sneak into the room through the window.

"Amu!" Ikuto hurried towards her and he whispered something in her ear. Amu blushed and nodded shyly, looking at him for a moment before they turned back to their audience.

"Where have you been?" Yukari asked. "Nikaidou's going through his files now." She jerked her head at Tacoma.

Amu's eyes followed her actions and she smiled coldly and sadly when she saw Tacoma. "Ah, Tacoma. It has been a long time since we met, hasn't it?"

Tacoma turned his face away from her and refused to say anything. Amu laughed and turned back to her audience.

"You see, Tacoma was jealous of the heir to Easter. He wanted power. So he killed the people who knew of the heir and the previous heir to get his position." Amu revealed. "Aruto, my parents and guardians knew about this. Of course, Tsukasa also knew about the heir, but on account of Tsukasa having a Shugo Chara, Tacoma didn't kill him."

"Why?" Hikaru spoke up for the first time. "Why target Amu?"

Amu smiled when Tacoma refused to reply. "Hikaru, I was not the target. You were."

Hikaru blinked. "Me?"

"Yes, Tacoma's records stated that you are the heir to Easter. I was the daughter of the two Hinamoris who knew and disapproved of Tacoma's plans. Ami was too young to know anything about it, but I was just the age to know more than I ought to have."

"Is that right, Tsukasa?" Yukari turned to Tsukasa.

Tsukasa shrugged. "More or less." He replied. "But I was requested by the Hinamoris not to reveal anything about the heir to Easter until Hikaru is eleven…"

A low cackling suddenly filled the room. The occupants turned to see Tacoma cupping a white sphere in his hands. Everyone immediately recognized it for what it was.

"Finally! My wish will be granted!" Tacoma laughed crazily, a mad gleam in his eye. "I wish—"

"Amu! Unlock the Lock!" Tsukasa shouted at her as the Guardians threw themselves at Tacoma. Amu blinked in surprise, but brought out the Humpty Lock and Dumpty Key. Ikuto stared at the Dumpty Key in surprise before he turned his eyes to Amu. '

"So you took it…" he mumbled. Amu flushed and handed the Key to him.

Ikuto received it with a wry smile before he picked up the Lock from around her neck and quickly inserted the Key into it and unlocked the Lock.

There was a brilliant flash of light and when the light cleared, Amu and Ikuto were dressed differently. Amu had Transformed with her four Charas, while Ikuto had Transformed with Yoru… and an unknown egg that he had found in his violin. He had tucked it away in his pocket, but now he had Transformed with it…

"I wish that you were all dead!" Tacoma screamed just then. Everyone looked at each other in horror, almost expecting to be dead. Moments passed and nothing happened. Tacoma's face lost the expression of hope and it slowly crumbled.

"NO!" he screamed and hurled the egg down at the floor. To everyone's surprise, Hikaru dove forward and managed to catch it. Tacoma whirled around, uncaring of everyone and dove for the window. He smashed through it, and disappeared.

Everyone could only stare at the broken window in shock, while Tsukasa, Ikuto and Amu hurried to Hikaru.

"That was a good catch, Hikaru." Tsukasa murmured as he helped the boy up.

Amu and Ikuto stared at the egg in confusion as it slowly faded from a pearly white to a yellow and blue egg.

"Tsukasa-san?" Amu asked in confusion.

"I'll explain everything soon." The man assured. The sirens of the police rang through the still air.

**AMUAMUAMUAMU**

Everything had ended, finally. There was no need to worry about Easter anymore. Amu sighed. Maybe…

Well, at least things would be more peaceful, now…


	16. Chapter 15

Akirina: Well... this is the 2nd last chapter... I will be writing a sequel to this, I guess...

Chapter 15

Four years later…

Everyone was gathered in Easter, awaiting Tsukasa's arrival. It had been four years since Gozen was taken down and Yukari made the temporary head of Easter. Today was Hikaru's birthday. His eleventh birthday.

Today, Tsukasa would reveal the detailed truth about Hikaru…

"Sorry, I was held back." Tsukasa entered the room with a cheerful grin. "Have I kept everyone waiting?"

"Just hurry up with it, uncle!" Tadase replied good-naturedly. Ever since Tacoma died four years ago, the uncle and nephew had been spending more time together. Tsukasa was grooming Tadase to be the next Headmaster of Seiyo Academy so that he could retire and become the Keeper of the Planetarium.

The planetarium was a dangerous place… But that is another story altogether.

"Well, the heir to the Easter is—" Tsukasa started but was interrupted by Kuukai.

"Isn't Hikaru the heir? We know that already." He said.

"No." Tsukasa sighed. "Amu is the heir."

Silence reigned before Amu interrupted it. "What?"

"You're the heir, Amu." Tsukasa explained. "Hikaru is your brother." He hurried on when he saw the confused look on her face. "Hikaru is five years younger than you. You'd probably remember when you were five, your mother spent a year overseas?"

Amu nodded. "I remember it vaguely." She replied slowly. "But I thought she was away due to business…?"

"That's not true." Tsukasa sighed. "Your mother was in China. The doctor had told her that she should give birth in China because the stress she was facing in Japan was too much. So she stayed there for 'business' and then when Hikaru was born, she handed him to an old couple with the surname Ichinomiya who were in China for vacation."

"But… why?"

"She didn't want Gozen to find out that there was a male heir to Easter, you see. Tacoma's precedent would have killed Hikaru immediately." Tsukasa sighed. "It was a good thing that you managed to find him."

"But…"

"Congratulations, you're the new Head of Easter." Tsukasa smiled at Amu. She frowned at him, still confused, but was swept away by the personnel of Easter before she could say anything else.

Three months later…

"Ikuto." Amu called and her boyfriend—fiancé—turned to her with a smile on his face.

"Amu," he said in amusement. "Can't it wait?"

Amu flushed slightly. "Well, I just wanted to tell you about your latest assignment."

Ikuto nodded. "What about it?"

Amu took in a deep breath. "You're going to have a World Tour." She told him. "Take the opportunity."

Ikuto's eyes gleamed, knowing what she was implying. Amu studied her fiancé's face for a moment, reading the gratitude that he felt towards her and the love that he felt for her.

"Of course." Ikuto murmured, leaning down to brush his lips softly against hers. "Thank you."

Amu smirked. "Just remember to be back for the wedding, will you? Wouldn't want the engagement to be broken, after all."

Ikuto laughed. "Sure thing."


	17. Epilogue

Akirina: Here's the ending! Well, it may be a little strange... Anyway, many thanks to all the readers out there for liking my story! [i.e. adding this story to story alert list, me to fav. author list etc.] The sequel will take slightly longer to be posted, though! :)

Epilogue

Four years later…

Ikuto groaned as he quickly ran a brush through his hair, studying the outfit he was wearing. Today—well, tomorrow was his wedding day. Tomorrow came in four hours' time. How could he have forgotten? It was only until then that Amu called him that he realized that the wedding was the next day.

Ikuto quickly grabbed his suit of his bag, glad that he hadn't unpacked anything ever since coming to Tokyo. It took nearly three hours for him to get back to Japan and he was running short of time.

"Dad! Are you done yet?" Ikuto yelled to the closed door down the hallway. He had come to Tokyo for one reason: to find his missing father, Tsukiyomi Aruto.

"I'm here." Ikuto spun around quickly, startled by the voice. Aruto stared at his son with an amused smile on his face. "I'm ready to go." He told his son bemusedly.

Ikuto sighed and ran his hand through his neat hair, making it messy again. "Let's go." He sighed again and hurried to usher his father out of the house.

**AMUAMUAMUAMU**

"Has anyone seen Ikuto yet?" the bride asked everyone in her rooms. Hinamori Amu, the Head of Easter, the bride to Tsukiyomi Ikuto, was dressed in a beautiful dress that flowed off her curves and satin bows that

"He just booked a ticket." Nikaidou told her, looking up from his laptop.

"From where?" Rima asked.

"Um, somewhere in Tibet, I think."

"What? Why?" Amu asked.

"He's on the way back," Nikaidou reassured her. "He'll reach on time."

"He'd better have a good reason why he's late." Amu huffed. "Well, all I can say is provide a distraction for him. How long?"

"One more hour."

"Fine." Amu was going to show him her displeasure when he came back.

**HIKARUHIKARUHIKARU**

Hikaru and Ami watched as Amu shifted nervously.

"Where is he?" Hikaru sighed. "He's going to be late for the wedding."

Amu said nothing, anxiously gnawing on her lip.

"The guests are getting noisy." Ami observed. The few years that passed had brought Ami up to be a well-mannered, kind little girl. Although she was slightly manipulative, like her siblings, she was well-liked by her peers and was regarded as a princess.

"I'm going to prank him after the honeymoon." Hikaru muttered. He had picked up on pranking two years ago and had delighted in playing one on people. Of course, he didn't do it too often, but he reveled in the experience when he had a chance to carry it out.

"You have my permission, Hikaru." Amu promised Hikaru, condemning Hikaru and Ami's brother-in-law to what she knew would be torture.

Hikaru smirked triumphantly. Ikuto would never know what had hit him.

"They're here!" Ami squealed suddenly.

**ARUTOARUTOARUTO**

Aruto strode down the sideway, holding on to Amu's hand. He had never imagined that his son would be marrying the young girl that he had treated as a daughter. Well, not really a young girl now, Aruto thought as Amu trod on his shoe discreetly, her eyes warning him that there were tears in his eyes.

He sat back and watched as Ikuto took Amu from him and brought her to the altar. Marriage vows were exchanged, and then the bride and groom kissed.

It was the most beautiful thing he had ever bore witnessed to.

**-END-**


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